First Drop
Matt ‘Gantos’ Gant and John ‘JR’ Retsas are two mates with a lifelong commitment to making kick-arse booze. These are wines with flavour, texture and a splash of funk, made with the best fruit from unique patches of the Barossa, Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale.
A sensual, yet exurberant wine. This Montepulciano, an Australian expression of this southern Italian variety, is teasingly textured, whilst bursting with ‘Shirazamatazz’ flavour.
Co l o u r
Dark ruby red
B o u q u e t
Lifted raspberry, dark cherry aromas
Pa l a t e
Vibrant kirsch, with zesty minerality and a spicy, lingering finish
Gr u b M a t c h
Osso bucco, braised veal cheeks
Ce l l a r i n g
Drink up, but also a 5-8 year proposition.
V i n t a g e
A challenging year followed by the mother of all vintages. No sugar coating. It was tough. An emotional rollercaster. Nevertheless we’ve triumphed and produced some of our most interesting wines to date. A cool wet winter was followed by warmer and drier conditions through October and November which led to strong and healthy shoot growth, but a wet December kicked off our first battle – Downy Mildew. A cool summer with some more frequent thunderstorm weather events in February and March brought our next battle – Botrytis. But the vigilance of our band of grapegrowing brothers meant that we were able to employ more intensive canopy management (shoot thinning/regular trimming) and to selective hand pick, and then hand sort in the winery, to minimize the impact. We love our growers! So for all the talk about the impact of rain, it’s really the cool conditions that define the wines we’ve produced this year. Wines with expressive varietal character, purity and balance. Advance Euralia fair
V i n e y a r d
Caj’s vineyard is near Kersbrook in the northern Adelaide Hills - 340m above sea level on complex sandy clay loams over shale.
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