Basket Pressed Shiraz 2018

Beskrivelse

Om Bellevue Estate

Bellevue Estate er et familieejet winery beliggende lige ved porten til byen McLaren Vale i vindistriktet McLaren Vale i Sydaustralien. Bellevue Estate producerer kun et produkt, deres enkeltmarks Bellevue Estate Basket Pressed Shiraz. Al vinproduktion foregår i deres eget lille mikro winery. Den meget begrænsede produktion på kun 1000 kasser gærer i små 2-tons åbne gæringstanke og bliver presset i en gammeldags presse.
Winemaker Corey Vandeleur er en meget sympatisk, behagelig og nede på jorden mand. Han er født og opvokset i McLaren Vale og arbejder, udover arbejdet med sin egen vin Bellevue Estate Shiraz, ligeledes som winemaker hos et andet McLaren Vale winery ved navn Mollydooker. Kender man til Mollydookers vine, er man heller ikke i tvivl om, når man smager Bellevue Estate Shiraz, at den samme mand er med til at skabe sin magi begge steder.
Vi fik anbefalet Bellevue Estate fra nogle lokale folk i McLaren Vale, efter at vi havde boet i byen i nogle få dage. Vi købte en flaske og blev helt solgt lige med det samme. Vi drak vinen rigtigt mange gange i løbet af vores 10 måneders ophold, og brugte den som reference for hvor godt McLaren Vale shiraz kan smage. Det er derfor på ingen måde ufortjent at kåringer som: Best boutique red wine across Australia and New Zealand, Best Shiraz in Australia & NZ ved Winestate Magazine Wine of the Year Awards, Outright 1st Prize in Winestate Magazine New Release Tasting 292 wines tasted and the only 5 star rating was awarded to Bellevue Estate, best shiraz in Australia regardless of price in the Edinburgh Shiraz Challenge i de seneste år er tildelt Bellevue Estate.

History

Corey Vandeleur was born and bred in McLaren Vale. His parents, Peter and Janis Vandeleur, were the local publicans for 32 years. His parents sold the business when he was seventeen years old. It was inevitable growing up in McLaren Vale that he was destined to work in the wine industry.

After his fair share of grape picking and hanging off the back of grape harvesters in the wee hours, he landed a job at Maglieri Winery in 1990 under winemaker John Loxton. On weekends he set up and planted what is now the Bellevue Estate Vineyard. Corey remained with Maglieri for seven years before heading overseas to do vintage at Geyser Peak in Sonoma County in California under Daryl Groom. Following this, Corey worked harvest at Zandvliet Winery in South Africa and eventually worked at three Chateaus in Bordeaux for the Despagne family. For the last ten years he worked for Hardys Tintara Winery before creating the Bellevue Label with his wife Michelle, who also has extensive knowledge of the wine industry with over eleven years of experience. Michelle is the recent recipient of the ‘2011 Madec Outstanding Cellar Door Person of the Year’ award.

Although Corey never formally studied oenology he has over 20 vintages under his belt and believes you dont have to be a qualified mechanic to rebuild your engine if you know what you’re doing.

“I believe the hardest decision a winemaker has to make is sometimes not to make a decision at all and that’s where I come in. I don’t even go in football tipping as it is eight less decisions a week I have to make. I owe this to my time in Bordeaux where i learnt that wine was made in the vineyard and only fermented in the winery. Only adding yeast and a slight acid adjustment if required, I guide the ferment with the aid of cooling. If converting sugar to alcohol is called winemaking I guess that is what I do.”

It is definitely a family affair with father Peter picking out the petioles for days post harvest, mother Jan keeping everyone fed and wife and daughter Millie keeping them in check.
Bellevue Estate Winery is situated in front of the vineyard facing the main road. It was built in 2007 when the first vintage was made.
All wine is made on site in small two tonne open fermenters and hand shovelled via a small grape destemmer atop the fermenter allowing the fruit to enter the fermenter without the use of a must pump.
After cold soaking 10% of the juice is run off to intensify colour and flavours. The fermenters are hand plunged prior to traditional hand rachet basket pressing. All wine is matured in french and american oak hogshead barrels for eighteen months. The wine is made with minimal intervention with no added tannins or finings.

Rødvin. Australien.