Sweet Pea McLaren Vale Moscato 2017
Tasting Notes
I like to call the Sweet Pea a breakfast wine, which makes it sound like I need to take a long hard look at my personal habits, but I am thinking of a Sunday late breakfast/ brunch type affair, with some scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. The lovely grapey/ floral characters are so joyous and breakfasty! You can add some gin to the Moscato, throw in some ice and lime and mint, and voila, a cocktail for early evening. There’s some exotic Turkish delight character in the wine, with a bit of pink bubble gum too. Being a Moscato, it is sweet but the sweet ying is balanced out by the savoury yang. Try it for breakfast, I dare you.
Vintage
We had terrific winter and spring rains leading up to vintage 2017, a marked contrast to the previous year, proving once again if proof were needed, that every vintage is different. We had a cool early part to spring too, combined with the spring rain. Flowering was about 3 weeks later than the previous year which of course meant that vintage was 3 weeks later than normal, or as some old locals said sagely, back to the old normal. There was a very long and slow ripening period which is terrific for allowing grapes to develop their flavours. We had a pretty dry February March and April, once the spring rains finished in mid-January. Overall a late vintage with some incredibly promising reds and outstanding whites.
Winemaking
Our Moscato is made using the variety Muscat à petits grains (‘muscat with small berries’ is the loose French translation) or as it is more commonly known here in Australia ‘Red Fronty’ (red Frontignac to be precise) . It is grown all over central and Eastern Europe, as well as here in Australia and although a red grape, it is used to make sweet or dry white wines or in our case, the ‘Sweet Pea’ Moscato, a slightly sweet, spritzy style of pinkish wine. The grapes were picked at about 12°Be and allowed a couple of hours skin contact to let us get the lovely pale pink colour. Fermentation was stopped when the wine achieved approximately 6.5% alcohol, which is practically perfect for this subtle ‘frizzante ‘ style of wine.
Other Vintages
Technical Details
Picking Date: 10th February 2017
Alc/Vol: 7%
Bottling Date: 23rd April 2017