From a single vineyard at Mt Pleasant in the Adelaide Hills and includes 5 % co-fermented Riesling. 100% hand-picked fruit, upon arrival at the winery is split into two parts. 85% (including the 5% Riesling component) is destemmed but not crushed, and the other 15% is left as whole bunches, including stems.
The ferment is kept cool for a 10 - 14 day maceration before being pressed off directly into 100% new French oak barriques to finish its primary and malolactic fermentations. The wine is left on its lees with regular battonage, for its full 30 month barrel ageing. It is then settled naturally and bottled, without finings.
‘Immediately noticeable finely perfumed cedar French oak on the nose. Sweetly complex but with the archetypal Voices elegance of aromatic. Again a plushness upon entry and a sweetness across the tongue that lingers. Exhibiting expressly the characteristics of the 2021 vintage in both its refined elegance but juicy richness will build but be a very stylish complex red.’ Winemaker's Note.
Charlie Melton needs no introduction. Since his first vintage in 1984 and on to his first vintage of Nine Popes in 1988 and beyond he has been a leader of the Barossa Valley. Importantly, he was one of the first to recognise the value of the Barossa’s old plantings of Grenache, Shiraz and Mataro, at a time when the S.A. Government launched the infamous Vine-Pull Scheme, paying growers to remove these so unproductive vines!
And thank goodness he did! Since those early days, the range of Charles Melton Wines has expanded, with total plantings today of just over 34 hectares, the majority being old vine plantings in Krondorf, Lyndoch and Rowland Flat. Indeed, the very oldest of these (at Rowland Flat) will be celebrating their centenary in 2027.
As if this pedigree needed any endorsement, the 2014 Nine Popes was awarded the trophy for Best Australian Red at the 2017 International Wine Challenge in London. Today, Charlie has been joined by daughter Sophie as winemaker, further underwriting the future of this much admired and celebrated family business.