Mount Barker Natural Skin Contact Sauvignon Blanc 2023

About The Wine

This Mount Barker Skin Contact Sauvignon Blanc 2023 is grown in small vineyards in Mount Barker. The mild floral character compliments the natural characters of the fruit with almond, pear, lemon and white balsamic all present.

All parcels were fermented by wild yeast and have been left unfined and unfiltered.

Packed full of bright stone fruit and citrus flavours delivered with chalky tannins, crisp acid and a long savoury finish this little banger demands to be drunk poolside on a hot summer’s day. Minimal filtration and minimal preservative.

Comments from Wine Buyer Steve

Finally, we have sourced a Natural skin contact white wine!

The fruit for this Mount Barker Skin Contact Sauvignon Blanc was handpicked, wild fermented and the parcels for this wine were direct pressed to a variety of vessels where they fermented spontaneously and were intentionally left un-topped post ferment to form a flor and create a sous voile style wine.

My Score – 97/100 – WACC Gold Medal.  

About The Producer

The wine maker who produces this awesome natural Mount Barker Skin Contact Sauvignon Blanc 2023 makes wines that are uniquely expressive of their origins. They currently lease and manage four small vineyards in the Mount Barker and Porongurup sub-regions of Western Australia’s Great Southern. They feel that the cool climate and ancient decomposed granite soils of the Great Southern lends itself to low yielding vines producing high quality fruit, which is necessary to make expressive minimal intervention wines.

They farm the vineyards using organic practices eschewing the use of synthetic chemicals. They don’t irrigate the vineyards forcing the vines to send roots deep into the sub-soil. Their fruit is all hand harvested and crushed by foot, commonly employing whole bunches including the stalks. Both primary and malo-lactic fermentation occur spontaneously with native yeast and bacteria. Movement of the wine is kept to a minimum and no fining or filtration is used. They believe that these natural practices as well as being better for the environment, help create delicious wines that express a sense of place.

What are Natural Skin Contact white wine:

Skin contact wine is essentially white wine that is cloudy because the grape juice has been allowed to stay in contact with the grape skins (macerate), from as little as a few days to as much as a year (and that is extreme even by red wine standards). This gives the wine a more full-bodied, tannic character, and depth of colour, which ranges from pale gold to deep bronze. The colour completely depends on how long the skin contact is for; sometimes days, sometimes several months.