Agriculture
22 July, 2024
First taste of vintage stunner
A RED wine described as one of the region’s best balanced vintages in memory had its release in Bridgewater on Friday night. Turner’s Crossing Vineyard unveiled its 2021 The Frederick shiraz cabernet at a dinner that saw its wines matches with...
A RED wine described as one of the region’s best balanced vintages in memory had its release in Bridgewater on Friday night.
Turner’s Crossing Vineyard unveiled its 2021 The Frederick shiraz cabernet at a dinner that saw its wines matches with a three-course meal prepared by Bridgewater Hotel head chef Nathan Egan.
Wayne Leicht, national sales manager for the Serpentine vineyard, said 2021 had been a stunning vintage.
“The 2021 vintage in Bendigo (wine region) will go down as one of the greats,” he said.
“With La Nina in full effect we basically skipped any real heat of summer. Straight from spring to autumn. The milder weather helped maintain fresh and vibrant characters, yet it wasn’t so cool that tannins and flavour could not develop fully.”
“Shiraz and cabernet grapes were processed to Italian Defrancesci auto fermenters for five days and cold soaked before inoculation and fermentation.
“Once fermentation began we plunged and pumped (grapes) over two times a day until mid-ferment, with optimum extraction happening at the beginning of fermentation before the presence of alcohol which extracts the harsher tannins from the skins.”
The vineyard’s shiraz and cabernet vines were planted in 1999 and are harvested each March and April.
Friday night’s dinner was the latest seasonal cuisine dinner at the Bridgewater Hotel that Wayne said was the “closest we have to a cellar door”.
“We don’t have a cellar door but our wines are sold at the Bridgewater Hotel,” he said.
Turner’s Crossing’s 2017 cabernet sauvignon was awarded a double gold medal at the 2023 Intercontinental Wine Challenge.