Description
This tiny vineyard is one of Australia’s most southerly located in the Huon valley in southern Tasmania. Paul and Gilli Lipscombe own the vineyard and make the wines and both have considerable vineyard and winemaking experience behind them including winning the Jimmy Watson trophy for Home Hill where they have been the winemakers in recent years. From working together in the Languedoc to New Zealand, Oregon and Margaret River they spent a lot of time researching and considering the best possible vineyard site with the aim to produce Australia’s best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay finally settling on this ideal north facing vineyard which is sheltered from the prevailing south-westerly winds. Best described as a warm site within a cool climate, the soil is free-draining quartz inflicted mudstone soil over clay. The vineyard is planted to a large variety of Dijon clones as well as numerous other clones planted by the previous owners and all vineyard work is done as organically as possible. In 2019 a new planting including some Trousseau has been made on the steep north-west facing slope beside the main vineyard block.
So to the name, where does that come from? Paul & Gilli Lipscombe explain … “There was a handwritten sign on the wall at the Red Velvet Lounge in Cygnet, our local coffee and cake respite from the Tasmanian weather. It said, “Sailor Seeks Horse” and went on to explain that the author had sailed solo around the world and ridden across the US from coast to coast and back again…on a mule. He’d then decided he wanted to travel around Tasmania by horse but didn’t have one. So, was there anyone who would lend him one? If they didn’t have a horse then a pony would do. It was an idea that resonated with us. Here we were, trying to do something a little bit crazy, without much money and requiring a little bit of help to get to where we wanted to be.”
“The Pinot Noirs we love display a delicate balance between red and dark fruits, high-toned aromatics, layered depth and verve. It’s something we hope to achieve in our Pinots and is a combination of site and sensitive winemaking. Picking dates are intrinsic to obtaining the energy we look for in our wines – pick too early and you lack the delicious component, pick too late and you lose the moreish part. It’s a cliché but it’s all about balance. Our winemaking philosophy is pretty simple. Listen to the fruit and let it guide you. We soak the fruit at ambient temperature (cold in the Huon) and then let natural yeast start the fermentation process. Once the ferments are complete we taste the wine on skins until the tannin profile is right and then press to barrel. From there we inoculate for malolactic fermentation, then leave the wine unsulphured until late-spring and add sulphur dioxide. The wine is left untouched until bottling, which varies depending on how the wine looks. Stems are used as a supportive component when they are ripe and the amount varies.”
About the 2022 vintage from the winemaker: “2022 can be summed up as ‘wet then dry’. Maybe that’s a touch simplistic but less is more as they say. Good canopies early in the season and then a relatively stress-free growing season meant bunches were a little fuller than 2021 and so yields came in at about our average which means a few more bottles this year than last.
“Wild ferments, gently plunged twice daily, then left on skins post ferment until the tannins aligned and pressed straight to barrel. 5% whole bunch. 10% new oak, mix of barriques, hogsheads and puncheons. 12 months in oak, 3 months in tank pre-bottling. Sulphured mid-summer. Un-fined Savoury, blue/red fruit, sappy, classic SSH nose, thyme, garrigue, flow.” Paul Lipscombe.
RRP $74 Our Special Price $64.99 – Limited!
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