Bekkers, McLaren Vale
Emma (the winemaker) and Toby (the viticulturist) Bekkers have quickly made a reputation for themselves among the McLaren Vale wine community for their exacting standards. All of the fruit is handpicked and sorted, with one of the main goals being to remove raisined berries. They’re looking for fresh red and blue fruit flavors that are more delicate than dried fruit or fruitcake flavors, Emma says. The wines tend to blend multiple sites to achieve the balance that they’re seeking in their wines, choosing grapes from close to the coast to blend with grapes from higher, inland locations.
Chablis 2022
It’s no secret that we aspire for the Bekkers red wines to be an emblem for McLaren Vale and its relatively untapped potential at the "pointy end” of the fine wine world.
Part of our journey has included much work and travel to some of Europe’s finest regions and producers. Emmanuelle has completed numerous vintages in Burgundy and Bordeaux along the way.
For our Tasting Room experience we wanted to offer a white wine for special occasions. In all our travels we’ve not found a better white variety than Chardonnay. It’s a grape that is grown in McLaren Vale but the climate that so well suits Grenache and Shiraz limits our ability to produce a Chardonnay of similar calibre.
What then to do? We considered other varieties in McLaren Vale, and Chardonnay from Tasmania or the Adelaide Hills. Nothing really meshed with our history. We finally settled on leveraging Emmanuelle’s French heritage to make a Chardonnay in Chablis for release in Australia. It’s a great excuse to maintain an important link with her homeland and an opportunity to keep abreast of global trends.
As you can imagine fruit from these famous vineyards is difficult to source.
No recommended products at the moment.
