Tasting Notes |
A voluminous aroma somewhat
akin to Rambutans and Lychees intensifying with the years
Background: We break a lot of rules with this
wine in departing from traditional ideas of what a pink wine should
be. Fuchsia is unique to Happs. It owes nothing to anything that
precedes it. Surprisingly, nothing that has ever been produced
locally appears to rival it, either in flavour or local popularity
and it continues to grow in sales year by year. For this we thank
our Fuchsia drinkers who daily spread the word.
Fuchsia is made without skin contact and with
particular attention to any factor that might cause astringency in
the wine. |
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Construction of fully insulated
tanks. |
The grapes are chilled
prior to crushing. Because we are dealing with cool mash in the
crusher and press, we need very little sulphur dioxide to inhibit
bacterial and wild yeast action. This enables selective extraction,
the avoidance of some of the harsh elements in the grape that show
up because of the presence of sulphur dioxide itself. We have a
regime of long slow pressing cycles in very large batches, presses
with a high ratio of screen to volume, and severely limited mixing
cycles. Our pumps and hoses are chosen for their low friction
characteristics. All these choices add up to cleaner juice, less
maceration of the berries and a smaller pressings fraction. In fact
90% of the juice is extracted without pressing at all.Despite the
effort to minimise tannin pickup during processing tannin itself is
very important to the constitution of the wine, integral to the
balance of flavours that develop.
Perhaps
the rest of the difference relates to the way we grow our grapes,
more in the sun than the shade on our wide divided trellis, the way
the fruit colours up and the particular range of flavours that
develop during ripening. Perhaps it owes something to the range of
flavours that develop in the grapes here in Dunsborough. Whatever it
is, and sometimes it is hard to put your finger on it, the wine is
different.
In truth there are no secrets. We can not always tell
why things are as they are.
In order
to retain some residual sweetness we rely upon a system of tank
refrigeration that to our knowledge is unique. It is designed to
eliminate yeast activity and aid settling. Finally, there is careful
filtration. From the stage where the fermentation is stopped until
the wine reaches the bottle, it is kept cold. It therefore tends to
retain much of the carbon dioxide that is natural to newly fermented
wine. This becomes an important feature of the style and assists its
longevity.
The
grapes used are predominantly, but not exclusively Cabernet, Merlot
and Shiraz.
Current Vintage : 2006
Sterilising, rinsing, filling, corking,
stacking |
