Under Wraps

Nagambie Lakes Primitivo 2017

When searching for an Italian red variety to plant, I knew I wanted to produce a rich and flavoursome wine, good to
drink with a hearty, slow-cooked ragu, but also a variety that would suit our warm and sunny climate at Tabilk in central
Victoria. Primitivo, a native of sun soaked Puglia in southern Italy, with its inky red colour and spicy blackberry flavours
on the palate was the perfect choice.

Producing our Primitivo is a labour of love. To ensure the flavours are deep and concentrated the crop levels are
restricted to one bunch per shoot - time consuming but worth it. In cool years like 2017, we also move through the
vineyard at veraison as the red grapes start turning colour, and remove any recalcitrant green lobes of the bunches,
to ensure ripeness and flavour are uniform.

As ripeness approaches, in a modern Australian approach to an age old Italian winemaking tradition, we hand pick a
quarter of the crop and lay the beautiful buxom bunches on racks we have built into two old silos on the farm. In the
warm Autumn sunshine these bunches raisin and dehydrate very quickly. The rest of the fruit is then picked and the silos
emptied and the two portions are fermented together.

The wine spends 18 months in a mixture of new and old American oak barrels. The sweet flavours of American oak
enhancing the sweet fragrance of clove black pepper and all-spice on the nose and enhancing the wonderful rich flavours
of berry and pomegranate on the palate. The resultant wine is a complex, rich and deliciously savoury wine. A wine to
enjoy with a perfectly grilled steak or slow-cooked ragu. (A vegan friendly wine though not many vegans will be enjoying it
with a steak!)