The Wine
The McLaren Vale material was hand picked, then crushed and de-stemmed. Approximately 60% of the juice was drained into 3-year-old French oak barriques. The balance of the juice and skins are retained to be later co-fermented with Shiraz. With the cloudy juice starting to ferment within 24 hours, the ferment ticked along beautifully until dry, with the malo starting on its own accord. The Langhorne Creek fruit was also crushed and drained with fermentation being completed in stainless steel, and the added yeast giving a contrast of styles to blend. With the Viognier, Ben aims for a finer, more elegant style than the norm. Typical floral apricots and waxy blossom characters abound, while a wonderfully complex integration of tropical fruit and honeysuckle cross the palate. It’s a delicate wine rather than a red drinker’s white!

The Vineyards
True to the philosophy of the Mr. Riggs Wine Company, to source pristine fruit from winemaker Ben Riggs' own and friends' vineyards, it was an obvious choice to utilise the grapes of Angas Vineyards, situated in Langhorne Creek. Vigneron John Pargeter manages some 500 acres of premium vineyards here. This parcel of fruit provides terrific structure and texture. The low rainfall vintage of 2009 produced low yielding crops of high quality fruit and intense flavours. Piebald Gully, Mr. Riggs' very own vineyard, is situated in the coolest sub-region of McLaren Vale, bordering the Adelaide Hills. It's planted in deep sand over orange ironstone impregnated friable clay and produces late ripening vines due to the wetness of the area and thus soils.

 

 

$19.00 per bottle

Closure
Stelvin

Winemaker
Ben Riggs

Grape Variety
100% Viognier

Growing Region
Adelaide Hills

Date Bottled
9-Nov-2009

% Alcohol
13.5%

Residual Sugar
2.1g/L

Acidity
6.6g/L

pH
3.19

High Res Photo
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