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Eurabbie Estate’s labels claim their wines are “hand-crafted”. So what does hand-crafted mean?
The grapes for Eurabbie wines come either off the winery’s own vineyard or from a small number of dedicated growers who supply Eurabbie. The grapes come into the winery as soon as they’re picked, are crushed in a small mechanical crusher and the must (crushed grapes: Skins, seeds and juice) is pumped into open fermenters.
Immediately, a small amount of sulphur is added to the must to protect it from oxidisation. The must is then covered, and carbon dioxide gas is pumped in. The Co2 allows water-soluble compounds which help flavour the wine, to leach out of the skins and into the juice before fermentation begins.
During fermentation, the skins come to the top and form a solid crust. Three times each day, this crust has to be hand-plunged to the bottom of the fermenter, and soaked skins underneath come to the surface, allowing a constant turning over of the skins.
At the end of fermentation, the skins are bucketed off the top and put into a hand operated basket press, to squeeze out the wine. Using a basket press means that up to 100 litres per tonne of grapes is left unrecovered, but that is always the lowest quality wine.
As well, hand-pressing is far more gentle than mechanical means, and fewer harsh tannins and flavors are imported into the wine, which in turn means more gentle fining methods are required. The result is that softer, more refined flavors are retained in the finished wine.
The wine then is transferred to new, or near-new, French or American oak barrels for at least a year of maturation. French barrels chosen by Eurabbie all are coopered in France from oak grown in forests where the wood’s flavors compliment the flavors of the raw wines made at Eurabbie. American oak barrels are made from wood grown in the Western United States, shipped to France where the wood is weathered in a wetter environment than the US or Australia, and then coopered after two years.
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© copyright 2007-2008. Eurabbie Estate |
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