Whisson Lake
Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Whisson Lake is the highest commercial vineyard in South Australia at vertigo-inducing 615m+ above sea level. The east-facing hillside curves and rises so steeply created its own mesoclimate, sunny and warm in some sections, cool and shady in others.
The vineyard has been using organic practices for many years, using a fertiliser program of fish, seaweed and manures for decades. Whisson Lake stopped undervine herbiciding in 2015. Everything they do in the vineyard is focused on improving the health of the soil and the vines with as few inputs as possible.
Piccadilly Valley’s cool climate means that their grapes ripen late, in many years just as the vine leaves are turning and the nights are growing cold. That presents a challenge for fermenting, as Mark and Andrie take their cues from traditional Burgundian winemaking styles focusing on small ferments and aim to get their ferments up around 30 degrees Celsius. They insulate and warm the ferments, because vintage is cold when you are this high in the Piccadilly Valley. The young wines grow slowly in their barrels for 18 to 20 months on grows lees, unfilterted and unfined.
2020 Le Gris de Noir
The Whisson Lake Gris de Noir is a unique take on Pinot Noir - made from the clear juice of Pinot Noir grown on steep, shaded hillsides and picked early from six rows selected from the South-facing, cooler Gris Block. It is only made in the cooler years. The first version of the Gris de Noir was created in 2009, when then fellow winemaker Tom Munro suggested making a sparkling wine. Although the original idea never took off, something even better eventuated – a white wine made like Champagne, but without bubbles.
Winemaking:
‘Vin gris’, as the French call it, is essentially a pale-coloured (effectively white) wine made from red grapes with no skin contact involved. The delicateness of Pinot Noir required that the fruit be hand-picked in the cool (6-8 degrees) early morning hours, then whole bunch pressed into 2 puncheons (500 litre) for a wild fermentation. The wine was finally aged in barrel for 20 months with minimal sulphur and no filtration, nor fining.
Tasting Notes:
Those who are well acquainted with the Gris de Noir will notice a stark change in hue, from an iridescent copper to a clear pale yellow. Building on the trials of previous vintages (2009, 2010, 2011, and 2017), Andrie and Mark opted for earlier picking and minimal lees stirring, resulting a lush yet much more focused expression of the fruit, resulting in what they believe to be their best Gris de Noir to date. It has a nose so delicately composed with nectarine, white peach, pear, and zesty citrus notes echoing on the palate. The waxiness is replaced by a light yoghurt creaminess and searing acidity we’ve come to expect from this site.
2021 Pinot Noir Black Label
The Black Label Pinot Noir grapes grow in the lower half of the property, a spot that's sunny and warm during the grape growing season, but cold in winter— the cold air lingers at the bottom of the steep slopes. Some fruit from higher parcels was added to the blend, which helped mitigate the effect of heat spikes during the growing season. 2000 bottles of the highly sought-after wine were produced this year.
Winemaking:
A warmer 2020 warranted the addition of 15% whole bunch, for a stalky appeal and a striking tannin structure. The fruit is voluptuous and extremely well balanced by the most subtle oak influence (very tight grained barrel). The wine was aged in old French oak for 18 to 20 months, except for one new barrel, which made up a little less than 15% of the blend.
Tasting Notes:
A product of the truly remarkable 2021 vintage in the Adelaide Hills, this ‘Black Label’ represents the very best of a young wine from Whisson Lake. Its pale colour belies its intense fruitiness with heady perfumes of strawberry, roses and sour Davidson’s plum. Dig down and uncover more restrained aromas of crayon, aniseed and fresh earth, with tart fruits on the palate and very pretty tannins. This is another Pinot from Whisson Lake that punches well above its weight.
2020 Pinot Noir White Label
Here’s a wine that crystallises Andrie and Mark’s fascination for Pinot Noir. It’s made from the cool and well-drained upper part of the Bunny Block. As the oldest vines (36 years and counting), they’re at the top of their game, both in terms of quality and altitude (560 to 610 meters above sea level). They’re dry-grown, resulting in a chiselled wine with complex and intense flavours and considerable tannic appeal. This year saw the addition of fruit grown on the younger vines situated lower.
Winemaking:
The White Label Pinot Noir embodies the hallmark characteristics of this unique site – intense with exceptional tannin structure to age, effortlessly composed and balanced This is a timeless expression of high-altitude Piccadilly valley Pinot Noir. 15% whole bunch and minimal new oak (less than 15%) for 18 to 20 months.
Tasting Notes:
An absolutely stunning wine born from a vintage remembered for the wrong reasons. It’s the kind of wine that seems hedonistic in its silky, deep flavours but at the same time has a lightness of foot and is so thoughtfully composed. The flavours are typical of the Whisson Lake terroir, macerated strawberries slosh around with ripe raspberries, salty licorice and rose, but it is the sweet spiciness and the acid backbone that makes this release so compelling. Tannins are mild even now but carry with them so much flavour. I would be surprised if this were not regarded as one of the very best wines of the vintage and indeed of Whisson Lake’s entire history.
2019 Pinot Noir ‘Monopole’
The fruit comes from the four rows adjacent to Andrie and Mark’s house. Each vintage, barrels from all plots are selected and tasted blindly in the assemblage process. Interestingly, the Monopole Pinot Noir always derives from those four rows. This parcel has the potential to produce outstanding quality fruit when given the right amount of attention throughout the seasons.
Winemaking:
The grapes were fully destemmed, then wild fermented. The juice was left on skins for 2 weeks after the first fermentation under a layer of argon. The wine was then slowly aged for 20 months in old French oak barrels (10% shaved French oak barrels) and a tiny amount of sulphur was added. Only 270 bottles were produced.
Tasting Notes:
The 2019 vintage of ‘Monopole’ for me represents the first time that this cuvee has represented such a seismic difference in character to the ‘White Label’. Its pseudo-French naming hints at parallels to the great wines of Burgundy, and though this is still undoubtedly an Adelaide Hills wine it displays overtones of some wines from that great region. This is a hauntingly beautiful Pinot Noir, quite reserved now, though already possesses magnificent darker cherry fruits, licorice root and violets. Some early secondary notes like game meat, mushroom and peaty undergrowth add to the mystique here and point towards its future potential. The palate has huge acidity, good tannins and overall so much structure. Needs years but such an impressive and beautiful wine.