VANGUARDIST Wines Chardonnay 2018 (6 Bottles) Seppeltsfield, Barossa Valley

$315.00 GST Included

AUSTRALIA WIDE SHIPPING INCLUDED

The Vanguardist range represents the epitome of what we are about. Pushing the realms of standard winemaking to deliver intrigue, excitement and utmost quality, without any loss of sense of place. Ultimate dedication to the craft of viticulture and winemaking, encapsulated in a bottle –through our lens.

TASTING NOTES
From the Bowe-Lees-Loveys vineyard in Woodside. Lovey takes me straight to Thurston Howell III from Gilligan’s Island. Lemon, spice, fennel, lemon zest. This is tight, lean and ripe lemony, firm flinty texture, a lot of nerve and energy, but with a gentle creaminess to offset. Length is very good, all lemon rind, ginger and nuts. More intellectual than visceral, but very good. Better again with a year or two in bottle.

93+ POINTS – Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

WINEMAKING
Hand harvesting and subsequent foot crushing in the vineyard continues to be one of our favourite techniques. This ‘controlled skin contact’ happens before your eyes in the picking bins.

It requires the fruit to be in near perfect condition as there is nowhere to hide, without the use of sulphur or other preservatives at this stage.

The juice will undoubtedly brown due to all of the exposure to air, but during this phase there is a real build-up of phenolics, all the good flavour and tannin molecules. After around 6 hours the fruit was “whole bunch pressed” to tank and then rough racked after about 12 hours. The juice was allowed to start a natural ferment in tank before being transferred to a combination of 22HL Slavonian Oak foudre, and old barriques. The wine underwent elevage on full lees in oak for around eleven months prior to racking and going to bottle without fining or filtration.

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About VANGUARDIST

As with many great stories, VANGUARDIST was born of humble beginnings. Ideals, harmonised over a table littered with empty bottles. Laughs that rolled late into the evening, not realising the impetus forming; a relentless ‘fire in the belly’ that sent Michael bouncing across the equator, chasing international harvests for most of his adult life.

While its first release surfaced in the Hunter Valley, VANGUARDIST launched in South Australia in 2014, with two painstakingly-crafted, single vineyard expressions. Two wines made from what Michael deemed to be the best varieties, grown in the best soils in the best sub regions the state had to offer. Herein lies the ‘V’ obsession: an unwavering temperament that now finds VANGUARDIST wines in Australia’s most relevant independent bottle stores, bars, and in the secret arsenals of many a fine-tuned Sommelier.

Years on, the VANGUARDIST focus has both broadened and deepened, illuminating new sites of intrigue with the same degree of captivation, while LA PETITE VANGUARD reflects the unbound and experimental (but ever-so quaffable) side of Michael’s character.

As of 2021, the VANGUARDIST family seems to have finally settled.

Michael and Claire, now live and thrive in the Barossa Valley, where the wines are hand-made, bottled and labelled. Michael’s dear friends and partners, Ali and Edouard, with whom this journey began, now distribute the wines in France and other pockets of Europe, taking the VANGUARDIST story abroad.

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