Place of Changing Winds Heathcote Syrah 2020

Description

WINNER: Best New Winery of the Year – 2022 Halliday Wine Companion and New Vineyard of the Year – Young Gun of Wine 2021

“Place of Changing Winds – the place and the vineyard – may well be the most exciting ‘new’ development in Australian wine. It will jump straight on to elite lists of Australian wine producers. You could describe this endeavour in one word: uncompromised.” Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

Place of Changing Winds is the vineyard project of Bibendum’s founder and owner Robert Walters. It is a single site in the Macedon Ranges of Victoria where Walters and his team began planting in 2012. The POCW site is very close to Bindi and lies on the same geological belt with a proven track record for quality Pinot and Chardonnay. The vineyard is in a little hamlet called Bullengarook, between Mount Bullengarook and Mount Macedon, about one-hour north-west of Melbourne.

To understand how to establish and manage this kind of vineyard took a lot of research and has been the result of some 25 years of engagement with the best European growers. By the time the project was established, Rob, with his viticulturist and friend Tim Brown had visited Europe together five times, in order to meet with many of the most inspirational growers Rob knows, and finalising the planning of the vineyard.

Place of Changing Winds is a super-high density, organic certified, no-compromise vineyard, focused exclusively on producing the highest quality wines with the maximum expression of their quartz and sandstone riddled soils.

The vineyard lies in an area that was called Warekilla by the original inhabitants, the Wurundjeri people. In their language, Warekilla meant “Place of Changing Winds” – a characteristic of the site that still holds true today.

In addition to the vines they grow themselves, they also produce some Syrah and Marsanne from vines further north of their base, in the warmer and dryer climates of Heathcote, and, from 2021, Mount Alexander in Harcourt North. Both these sites are superb places to grow Rhone varietals, and in both cases they work very closely with the vineyard owner, who works to their organic specifications -they choose the harvest dates and all picking is done by hand.

The soils here are the famous ‘Cambrian soils’—red dirt made up of eroded basalt over limestone, shot through with greenstone and jasper. The wines were grown organically, without any chemical inputs, and with minimal irrigation.

2020 had extremely low yields, with only a third of their usual harvest. The bunches and berries were tiny, with thick skins resulting in a darker, inkier expression of their Syrah, with plenty of fine structure. It will certainly age very well.

The Heathcote Syrah was fermented naturally with 100% whole bunches. There were varying levels of crushing and time on skins, including some full carbonic. Their ethos is always to use whole-bunch and whole-berry fermentation to bring perfume and finesse to the natural power of Heathcote.

Fermentation was in concrete and steel tanks and the maturation was mostly in large, neutral oak (Stockinger), with some in older barrique and concrete tank. Less than five per cent of the oak was new. Following successful experiments with longer aging, they have started to extend the maturations for their wines, maturing for 18 months (as opposed to 12 months for the 2019 release).
The 2020 is certainly deeper and darker in its personality than the previous release. There’s a dense core of spicy fruit, excellent complexity and fine, powdery tannins. Despite the wine’s intensity, there’s plenty of detail, purity, and excellent balance. You can drink it now, but it will certainly age for up to 10 years and beyond.

Brand new release and due to tiny yields stock is limited!  Grab it while you can!

Reviews for the 2019: 95 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front  “… The bottle I tried seemed quite reserved on the nose, even allowed a good amount of time to breathe, but the palate is quite something. The push through the finish here is elite. I mentioned the descriptor ‘sultana’ in my original review but I don’t see any of that now; it seems darker and more savoury, with dry licorice notes running through red/black cherry, along with smoked tobacco, along with sweet and woodsy spice aplenty. But really this wine is all about the finish, which is dynamite. It’s peacock’s tail territory. Dry, structural, plenty going on, a touch of the regal. I’m up a point, score-wise, and I’m tempted to be up by more. It’s a fabulous wine.”

93 points, Jane Faulkner for 2022 Halliday Australian Wine Companion “Robert Walters had been making this wine for nearly a decade under the Graillot label. In 2010, he collaborated with Crozes-Hermitage growers, father and son Alain and Maxime Graillot, to produce Heathcote syrah. Walters imports their wines, in turn, the Graillots’ distribution arm now imports Place of Changing Winds into Europe. Today, they are no longer directly involved but Walters continues with the wine under his label. 100% whole bunches, some carbonic maceration, fermentation in stainless steel, concrete tank and aged mostly in large Stockinger casks and used barriques. This feels great. The fuller-bodied palate is glossy and smooth, threaded with ripe, polished tannins. A melody of dark fruit with woodsy spices and some green (albeit ripe) whole-bunch flavours, but its tune is savoury and complexity its riff.” 

Our price $48.99 Last bottles