2024 Nomads Garden ‘Melvilles Vineyard’ LJR (Light Juicy Red) Field Blend, Rutherglen
The Wine
A light juicy red wine made with Sangiovese and Grenache, unashamedly made to be luscious, juicy and perfect for chilling, if you feel so inclined.
Don’t think too much about it, just enjoy it for what it is!
The Vineyard
Melville’s Vineyard sits on the eastern flank of the historic Rutherglen wine region and is one of the large larger vineyards in the area. Rutherglen sits on the banks on the Murray River and is a much warmer region than the nearby Alpine and King mountain valleys we source a lot of fruit from. We think the warmer climate makes it a great match for Mediterranean varieties. Fruit from here tends to ripen and be harvested first at the start of vintage period.
This vineyard has originally planted to the more common French varieties but in recent years some blocks have been grafted to exciting alternative varieties including Arneis, Grenache Blanc, Fiano, Grenache and Sangiovese.
The vineyard is expertly managed by long time head viticulturist Matt Partridge. The quality of the fruit delivered by Matt and his team is always of the highest quality and an absolute pleasure to make wine from.
The Winemaking
Made with a combination of Sangiovese and Grenache, picked and fermented together, this is a true field blend. Machine picked in the cool of the night at a bright fresh baume using a new generation selective harvester with the intention of maintaining as many whole berries as possible. Gently top loaded into the fermentors to avoid crushing the whole berries and extracting excess tannin and colour. Ferments are only pumped over once daily for a short duration to keep the cap wet.
Fermented using only the natural wild yeast indigenous to the vineyard and kept cool at around 20c throughout ferment to limit extraction. After short maceration, usually around a week the ferment is gently pressed to stainless steel to complete primary fermentation. Once sugar dry the wine is racked off heavy lees to a combination of neutral French oak for texture and stainless steel for vitality. A short maturation for roughly 3 months, bottled early at the end of July while still bright, juicy and fresh.
The Wine
A light juicy red wine made with Sangiovese and Grenache, unashamedly made to be luscious, juicy and perfect for chilling, if you feel so inclined.
Don’t think too much about it, just enjoy it for what it is!
The Vineyard
Melville’s Vineyard sits on the eastern flank of the historic Rutherglen wine region and is one of the large larger vineyards in the area. Rutherglen sits on the banks on the Murray River and is a much warmer region than the nearby Alpine and King mountain valleys we source a lot of fruit from. We think the warmer climate makes it a great match for Mediterranean varieties. Fruit from here tends to ripen and be harvested first at the start of vintage period.
This vineyard has originally planted to the more common French varieties but in recent years some blocks have been grafted to exciting alternative varieties including Arneis, Grenache Blanc, Fiano, Grenache and Sangiovese.
The vineyard is expertly managed by long time head viticulturist Matt Partridge. The quality of the fruit delivered by Matt and his team is always of the highest quality and an absolute pleasure to make wine from.
The Winemaking
Made with a combination of Sangiovese and Grenache, picked and fermented together, this is a true field blend. Machine picked in the cool of the night at a bright fresh baume using a new generation selective harvester with the intention of maintaining as many whole berries as possible. Gently top loaded into the fermentors to avoid crushing the whole berries and extracting excess tannin and colour. Ferments are only pumped over once daily for a short duration to keep the cap wet.
Fermented using only the natural wild yeast indigenous to the vineyard and kept cool at around 20c throughout ferment to limit extraction. After short maceration, usually around a week the ferment is gently pressed to stainless steel to complete primary fermentation. Once sugar dry the wine is racked off heavy lees to a combination of neutral French oak for texture and stainless steel for vitality. A short maturation for roughly 3 months, bottled early at the end of July while still bright, juicy and fresh.
The Wine
A light juicy red wine made with Sangiovese and Grenache, unashamedly made to be luscious, juicy and perfect for chilling, if you feel so inclined.
Don’t think too much about it, just enjoy it for what it is!
The Vineyard
Melville’s Vineyard sits on the eastern flank of the historic Rutherglen wine region and is one of the large larger vineyards in the area. Rutherglen sits on the banks on the Murray River and is a much warmer region than the nearby Alpine and King mountain valleys we source a lot of fruit from. We think the warmer climate makes it a great match for Mediterranean varieties. Fruit from here tends to ripen and be harvested first at the start of vintage period.
This vineyard has originally planted to the more common French varieties but in recent years some blocks have been grafted to exciting alternative varieties including Arneis, Grenache Blanc, Fiano, Grenache and Sangiovese.
The vineyard is expertly managed by long time head viticulturist Matt Partridge. The quality of the fruit delivered by Matt and his team is always of the highest quality and an absolute pleasure to make wine from.
The Winemaking
Made with a combination of Sangiovese and Grenache, picked and fermented together, this is a true field blend. Machine picked in the cool of the night at a bright fresh baume using a new generation selective harvester with the intention of maintaining as many whole berries as possible. Gently top loaded into the fermentors to avoid crushing the whole berries and extracting excess tannin and colour. Ferments are only pumped over once daily for a short duration to keep the cap wet.
Fermented using only the natural wild yeast indigenous to the vineyard and kept cool at around 20c throughout ferment to limit extraction. After short maceration, usually around a week the ferment is gently pressed to stainless steel to complete primary fermentation. Once sugar dry the wine is racked off heavy lees to a combination of neutral French oak for texture and stainless steel for vitality. A short maturation for roughly 3 months, bottled early at the end of July while still bright, juicy and fresh.
VINIFICATION
2O23 was a vintage that required much tireless work in the vineyards as a result of a very wet humid start to the growing season. However those who managed to get their vines through to Christmas disease free were rewarded with fruit displaying an amazing vibrancy and natural acidity thanks to the unseasonably mild weather conditions.
Gently handpicked and sorted in the vineyard, then chilled in the cool room at the winery overnight before pressing to stainless steel. The initial press cut was made at about 55OL/T with free run and pressings kept separate. The pressings were put to seasoned oak for fermentation and maturation on gross lees to reduce phenolics. The free run component was chilled then racked clean.
A healthy natural wild yeast fermentation commenced almost immediately in the pressings component, a small amount of this was used to seed the free run component. The ferment was kept cool at 15c throughout fermentation and racked clean off lees once fermentation was complete. The only additions made to this wine were bentonite, nutrients and PMS.
VINEYARD: BUNGAMERO VINEYARD
REGION/GI: ALPINE VALLEY
GROWER: TIM & MARK WALPOLE
PICKED: 2O/O3/2O23
BOTTLED: MID OCT 2O23
BAUME: 12.3 at picking
RESIDUAL SUGAR: 1.7g
ALC/VOL : 13%
ACID: 7.6g/L pH: 3.3