A new Beechworth white from a very famous vineyard

Now here’s something worth tracking down.

The Warner Vineyard is considered to be one of Beechworth’s finest plots, made famous by Giaconda (via the Warner Vineyard Shiraz), with fruit also going to other top makers (like Gary Mills at Jamsheed).

Yet it wasn’t until 2012 that the Warner family decided to release wines under their own name, also enlisting Gary as a contract winemaker.

This 2014 Warner Vineyard Roussanne Marsanne is one of the current tranche of releases, with a Shiraz and a Chardonnay on the bench to follow. Winemaking-wise the treatment is A1, with handpicked fruit and whole bunch pressing, the juice then racked with full solids into French oak of varying formats before wild fermentation and ageing on lees until bottling.

Sounds promising.

I roadtested it last night at my go-to local Japanese and the longer it sat there on the table, the better it looked. That slowburn personality is not uncommon for savoury white Rhone styles like this, but important to flag that it could be easy to write this white blend on on first approach.

Green straw coloured, the barrel characters make themselves  felt on the nose here (if in a subtle form) with the fruit falling into the red apple and pear category. It’s a wine of texture, and the palate is the star here; the style dry and chalky yet also surprisingly rich.

That savoury weight, enhanced by the lees and oak overlays, makes this a classy drink. Real good. Looking forward to the rest of the lineup. Best drinking: 2016-2020. 18/20, 93/100. 13.2%, $30. Would I buy it? Sure would.

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