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THE RED VELVET STORY
Robert Fiumara first bucked winemaking tradition in 1982, when Tramillon® — a blend of traminer and semillon — won a gold medal and trophy at the Royal Sydney Wine Show. Robert’s next venture outside the winemaking mainstream of the day came in 1985, when he and his brother Mick, who passed away in 1987, discussed the possibility of making a lighter-style, slightly sweet, soft red that could be enjoyed chilled as a fresh, young wine. “There are plenty of these sorts of reds around now, but in 1985 it was quite a radical move, both in terms of the marketplace and the technology required to produce it,” said Robert. Bottling a red with residual sweetness and no malolactic fermentation was risky, but we felt that rigorous cellar hygiene and innovations such as sterile filtration would allow us to bypass the flavour-numbing pasteurisation previously required for this sort of wine,” said Robert.
“We decided to make the wine by using a blend of red varieties we had in our experimental block and Lillypilly Red Velvet® became an instant hit. It’s everything I expect from Red Velvet® — enticingly aromatic, flavoursome on the palate and crisply fresh on the finish,” said Robert.
