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Viticultural & vinification notes		Winemakers comments
Vintage conditions	An ideal vintage with moderate temperatures and no rain.	Colour Nose     Palate	Clear pale lemon Attractive and varietal aroma of apricot, orange blossom, pear and quince, with hints of preserved lemon and star anise. A full flavoured wine with sweet fruit that displays flavours of pear, almond, fresh apricot, honey dew melon and grapefruit. The wine is fresh and zesty with a fine delicate palate which is something not always seen with this varietal.
Vineyard	Three Hills Karridale Hand pruned to rods Hand picked
Grape variety	Viognier
Maturation	Barriques of imported French oak
Wine analysis	Alc/Vol: 13.2% Acidity: 7.6 g/l pH: 3.0 Residual sugar:<0.5g/l

Viognier (pronounced Vee-on-yay) is a rare French variety which until recently was grown only in small appellations of northern Rhone, namely Cote Rotie where it is blended with Shiraz to give an aromatic lift and softening effect to the red wine produced and Condrieu and Chateau Grillet which produce some of the rarest and most exquisite white wines available.

In its native environment the Viognier vine is difficult, yielding small crops often with uneven ripening. Perhaps because of the rarity, the mystique, the challenge, Viognier has captured the imagination of winemakers and has had much publicity in Australia in recent times.

Viognier is the latest ripening of our white varieties. The downside of very late ripening is the chance of rain and rot in late autumn. The most intense grape flavours provide the best foundation to work with. A little botrytis may find its way into the fruit necessitating careful selection at the picking stage.

We find it useful to control yield via bunch removal before and after flowering. We think our trellising arrangements provide the right balance between sun and shade to yield golden coloured fruit with little green chlorophyll content and a low quotient of the accompanying forms of green flavour astringency. However, the vine is slow to establish and some of the fruit gets little leaf cover with a tendency to produce firm tannins.

Growing the vine without water results in an extended root zone that provides a great buffer against adversity in the heat of summer, reliable performance from year to year and the ability to ripen the crop speedily.

In this wine we have barrel fermentation and yeast lees stirring. Viognier and Marsanne, the major Rhone varietals have much to offer in diversifying our wine experience.