2021 DOG & WOLF Riesling

A blend of two sites, Waverly and Three Wishes.

Three Wishes is mature vineyard near Hillwood, on the East Tamar.  The vineyard is hidden on the southern side of the peninsula that is home to the Batman Bridge which connects east to west.  It is protected, somewhat, from the strong afternoon breezes that flow from Bass Straight which lies about 25km to the north, and the slope falls away to the morning sun in the east, with the river a stonesthrow to the south.  It is relatively warm site, which ripens early with wonderful flavour.  The property, Bayview, was planted in the 1999 by the Whish-Wilson family, approximately 2.5ha is split between Riesling, Chardonnay & Pinot Noir.  Three Wishes has been under lease since mid 2017.

Waverly, a cooler site, has been under lease since 2015, is located just to the east of Launceston.  The property, Glen Ayr, was planted in 2008, and after a few successful harvests the vineyard was left un-tended.  The vineyard was derelict when it was taken on, and has become a long term project.  This site is a little out of the way, and unique as it doesn’t really lie in any designated zone of the Tamar Valley really.  The vineyard has elevation above the valley itself, it recieves the same afternoon breezes, but gets cooler at night as it is not in sight of the river.  It is more influenced by the mountain terrain to the east and south, Mt Barrow and Ben Lomond further afar.  Its a dry vineyard, anecdotally it seems to not see as much rainfall as compared to sites on the western bank of the valley.  Seemingly, as a result of the stress imparted by a year of abandonment, this vineyard produces incredibly intensely flavoured fruit.  It is low yielding, theses days around 2.5T/Ha, previously much less.

Winemaking

Three Wishes was picked nice and early, looking for freshness and acid profile.  Destemmed and crushed to get as much flavour as possible, and good solids level, the juice was racked off gross lees and fermented in 500L puncheons, all seasoned French oak.  The wine was allowed to go partially through MLF, and was left on full lees until blending.

Waverly is the cooler site, and picked a little riper in terms of fruit flavour profile.  This was whole bunch pressed, racked with light solids and fermented in barriques, including some new.  A barrel selection of this parcel was undertaken and blended with the Three Wishes parcel.  Waverly makes up 20% of the final blend, which was left on light lees in tank for a period before light filtration and bottling in house.