When high quality wine cannot be sold within a certain period of “peak maturity”, they lose commercial value and are usually scheduled for destruction.
As part of our sustainability ethic, we have saved approximately 4,500 bottles of premium-quality wines from destruction. We distill them into distinctive brandies, aging them in barrels selected to complement their unique flavours.
We have finished barrelling “Europa Blanc”, made from 1,512 decanted bottles of imported French & Portuguese white wines (2017-2018 vintages). And we are just completing distillation of “Yarra Bloom”, made from 1,535 decanted bottles of Yarra Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (2011 vintage).
These will both be aged in red wine barrels, previously containing Barossa Valley wines.
We expect these barrels to take 4 years of maturation, but we will just have to see!
Now to rest my wrists for this season, after decorking and decanting 3,047 bottle of wine by hand! Anyone want some used corks??
More exciting is that our little 20L barrels are near maturity, and we expect to begin bottling our first batches of brandy around April-May 2026. This will be a limited run of 60 bottles, and is derived from a rescued barrique of Heathcote Shiraz scheduled for disposal. We expected very little chance of success initially, but the spirit has matured wonderfully in a pair of ex-Tasmanian port barrels.
We look forward to our inaugural brandy launch later this year - stay tuned!