2012 Terre à Terre Crayères Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc – Special Re-Release
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The 2012 Terre à Terre Crayères Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc is the fourth release of this Australian classic. The fruit is hand harvested from our close spaced Crayères Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc and whole bunch pressed. The wine is fermented in large old French oak demi-muids. The 2012 vintage proved to be ideal, producing very ripe fruit.
Fully ripened, healthy Sauvignon Blanc grapes were hand harvested earlier than average on the 23rd of February 2012. The fruit was transported back to the Tiers winery in the Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills where it was crushed and destemmed. The must was fermented in a mixture of 14 old French Vosges oak barriques, and six 600L demi-muids.
The Crayères vineyard is located at the top of a north-south limestone ridge in Wrattonbully, one of Australia’s most exciting regions. This vineyard has been baptised the Crayères Vineyard after the chalk cellars in Xavier’s region of birth in Champagne, France because of the natural limestone caves found underneath the vineyard. The clay rich Terra Rossa top-soil, characteristic of the area, promotes nutrient uptake while the underlying limestone is a reserve of moisture for the vines. The Sauvignon Blanc was planted on rootstocks in 2004 using the F4V6 and H5V10 “Australian” clones on 101-14 rootstocks, at a relatively high density for the area (4,444 vines per hectare with 1.5m wide rows), which means more km2 of canopy per hectare, and better fruit exposure.The fruiting wire is only 50cm above ground which provides extra ripeness for the vines in this cool climate region. The fruit from the western part of the vineyard is retained for our Crayères Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc.
Read more about the Crayères Vineyard.
- “A varietal masterpiece” 5 Stars – Lester Jesberg | winewise.net.au
- “A superb mid-weighted wine of considerable complexity and buckets of life.” 95 points – Ned Goodwin MW | JamesSuckling.com
- “Still promising to develop further.” 94 points – Regan Drew | Vino Notebook
- “A great example of aged Sauvignon Blanc” 95 points – Patrick Eckel | Wine Reviewer
- “What a fabulous example of aged sauvignon.” 93 points – Aaron Brasher | The Real Review
- “This will be a treat” 9.6/10 – Max Crus | maxcrus.com.au
- “Decent length, intriguing complexity and balance.” 93 points – Ken Gargett | Wine Pilot
- “The concentration and focus is next level.” 95 points – Steve Leszczynski | QWineReviews.com
- “A wine full of character and charm” 95 points – Jeni Port | Wine Pilot
- Ageworthy Sauvignon Blanc: Huon Hooke’s latest article sings the praises of the 2012 Crayères Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc
