By Dan Coward
Fresh juice at Knappstein
I made wine the other day. Shiraz grapes from the Stobie vineyard came into my crusher, at which point I twiddled my knob and sped up or slowed down the speed of the crusher-destemmer and then adjusted the speed of the pump accordingly. The deep purple juice then sailed off happily down a big fat hose into a tank. It was wine and I was a winemaker….easy. Sure there are still a few processes for that juice to undergo, but now that the hard work is done, I’ve left all that in the capable hands of chief winemaker, Julian Langworthy, and his very capable team at Knappstein in the Clare Valley.
Now I’m back in the big smoke, thinking I’d get up a bit early to write this. Meanwhile Jules has already been up since 5am welcoming the first Riesling of the day. That’s if the day is cool enough that they can get the grapes in and crushed with the absolute minimum of oxidation. The clean, pure, pristine Knappstein style demands this sort of handling and also makes the picking schedule a pretty intense juggling act. While I was there, the forecast was hot, so Riesling hand picking was postponed for a day while the early-ripening Shiraz blocks took centre stage.
Big Dan at work
Our day started slightly later than usual, at 6am, when we hit the winery to gulp down some coffee and indulge in some gentle singing (or was this my imagination?). Our first batch of Shiraz was late in so we tasted the ferments and the juice in tank to get an idea of how vintage 2010 was travelling. First up a batch of Auburn Riesling from the southern end of the valley which reminded me of cloudy, natural apple juice; not unpleasant at that time of the morning, but not of the style or quality to make it into the Knappstein Hand-picked Riesling. Next up a tank of juice from the Ackland vineyard in Watervale. This was much more like the house style, pure and driven with lemon and lime to the fore and complex aromatics sitting astride the lengthy finish. 12 Baume, great juice and one very happy winemaker.
Along one and the tank held juice from Jules and wife, Alana’s, own block – the Lacy vineyard. Immediately more pungent on the nose, it was absolutely dripping character and floral complexity. Not bad for something that comes from your front garden. Then a real style change as we got stuck into the 8.8.18 – a really interesting wine that Knappstein made for the first time last year. More Germanic in style, the first attempt had 8g total acid, 8% alcohol and 18g residual sugar, hence the name. By definition this year the label will have to hold a different name and Jules imagines it will be in the 9-9.5% alcohol region. A real mineral tang and a steeliness to the acidity. Juicy and lifted with a character that I could only describe as black tea spice. Jules looked at me dubiously and we moved on…
One happy winemaker
We next sampled from the 1700 litres of Pinot Gris that Knappstein crush…a tiny amount really. Intense and interesting with vibrant pink juice; the colour will drop out later in the process. It sounds a bit silly but I always get a really grapey character on good young PGs and this was no different. The Gewurztraminer in the next tank makes up the bulk of the blend (70%+) for the Knappstein Three (Riesling being the other variety). The only thing holding back the growth of this delicious wine is the lack of good Gewurz in the valley. Well every drop of the 8500 litres here was precious and a quick taste showed why. Beautifully floral with that trademark precision of acid and balance. Tangy with apple hints and the fruit sweetness that characterises great Gewurztraminer in my mind. We finished up our little tank tour with some old vine Shiraz that had already been in tank for a couple of days. It was soft and plush with loads of blackberry and boiled sweet flavours. Interestingly there was also a hint of that vanillin oak character (even though it had been nowhere near a barrel yet) which Jules explained he often sees off old vine Clare Shiraz.
Watch this space for part 2 of Dan’s harvest diary where he finally pulls his sleeves up and gets into some real harvest action.
Tags: Australia, Clare Valley, Harvest diary, Knappstein, Riesling