Flametree Winery is located on the picturesque shores of Geographe Bay, at the gateway to one of the world's great wine producing regions – the Margaret River Wine Region.
Established in 2007 by the Towner family, Flametree Wines was created with passion for wine and a vision to become a world recognised winery producing exceptional quality wines with a laid-back style and elegance.
By winning Australia's most well-known and respected wine accolade, the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy, with their first ever red wine, Flametree Wines has firmly established themselves in the upper echelon of Margaret River wine producers.
Proving that this accolade was not a coincidence and that Flametree was actually deserving of the prestigious award, the next vintage was also a finalist in the following years' show. This unprecedented success has since continued, with many critic reviews and awards.
Fruit / Vineyards
Fruit for the Flametree SRS Chardonnay was sourced from a single block on Rosa Glen Road; this area is in the southern part of the Wallcliffe sub-region situated south of the Margaret River townsite. Our clone of choice is the Gin Gin (or Mendoza) clone, picked early, as per many of the best examples of Margaret River Chardonnay. This fruit comes from old, low yielding vines grown from cuttings off the famous block 20 at Leeuwin Estate. Yields were moderate at around 6 tonnes per hectare. The vineyard is situated on a cooler south-west facing site; the soil is classic Margaret River gravel loam and clay. The fruit was handpicked during the second week of February at 12 beaume.
Winemaking
After overnight cold storage the fruit was whole bunch pressed and sent straight to French oak puncheons. We rotated the press more than usual in order to get higher turbidity (up around 800-1000 NTU), the juices were then left to ferment with wild yeasts. The key to successful wild fermention is the use of high turbidity juices, minimal sulphur dioxide, low alcohols and juices with good nutrient content. MLF was again blocked. I’m a big believer that Margaret River Chardonnay generally has enough texture from fruit and lees; MLF often thickens the wines and interferes with fruit purity and overall minerality in the finished wine. The 2014 SRS Chardonnay was barrel fermented in French puncheons, 35% new, the remainder being second and third year seasoned wood. The wines were left on lees, the lees were not stirred.
Tasting Notes
The nose shows tight citrus and dried pear, complex sulphide notes and slight French oak aromas, the result of 12 months aging in barrel. The SRS Chardonnay also has some complex sulphides in the struck match/popcorn spectrum; this is a result of a wild ferment with high solids. These sulphides contribute a lovely savoury oyster shell or saline character, to give the wine greater complexity andcomplement modern food flavours. After 12 months in the finest French oak the wine was fined with milk, filtered and bottled.
No recommended products at the moment.
