Description
“LL is a genius. One of the most gifted winemakers in the country.” Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
It’s been almost a decade since Lambert’s daring, handcrafted and joyously aromatic wines first made their way down from the Yarra Valley and on to the lists and shelves of Melbourne’s finest wine establishments (and a few of Sydney’s).
Lambert is obviously inspired by his experience making wine in Piemonte and Australia yet firmly believes that the personality of a wine will be dictated by its “place”. Lambert’s source vineyards (in poor, rocky and elevated pockets of the Yarra Valley) are therefore managed in order to bring out their unique geographic signature in the final wines.
All Luke Lambert wines are handpicked and of single-vineyard origin. They are wildly perfumed with moderate alcohol, fresh acidities, powdery tannins, and limited oak influence. Luke’s methodology includes wild ferments without the aid of temperature control, hand plunging, long macerations (with plenty of whole-bunch for the Syrahs), basket-pressing, gravity rather than pumping, old oak, and no fining or filtration. Lambert’s belief that “..the best wines have always been made by feel and are always sourced from unique and interesting vineyards that have natural balance and grow grapes full of character…” comes through strongly in the remarkable complexity and placeness of these wines.
2017 was a brilliant vintage … “In my view 2017 was the perfect harvest, a 10 out of 10. I wonder how many more like that I’ll get in the rest of my career making wine.” Luke Lambert is not pulling any punches on 2017: “It’s the best harvest I’ve seen in the Valley”, he starts, “it’s broken the trend of early/warm harvests and in fact was wonderfully mild, long and slow, which brought a lot of perfume and great acidity. In my view it was the perfect harvest, a 10 out of 10, and I wonder how many more like that I’ll get in the rest of my career making wine. I suspect it may be the one I look back on as the best growing season of my career.”
Where previous vintages for the Crudo Chardonnay have come from the red volcanic soils of Tibooburra, more recent bottlings have come off the Denton block, a northwest- facing slope of granitic sand over heavy granite boulders. Luke Lambert notes the Denton soils and aspect bring a cleaner acid line to this wine. With such “perfect” raw materials, Lambert chose to whole bunch press, eschewing any skin contact this year. Otherwise the story, as they say, remains the same: wild yeast fermentation, old oak, no temperature control, zero fining or filtration and only minimal sulphur at bottling, and large (5,000-litre) French oak foudre for maturation. “Pretty hard to stop drinking” might just cover it. 12.5% alc.
“There’s going to be some very good white wines coming out of the Yarra Valley from vintage 2017, I think. Subdued wine, and while it has flavour, it’s as much about texture as anything else. A little smokiness, lemon and peel, maybe white peach and almond, but quite winey rather than fruity. Fresh and crunchy acidity, green apple and lemon barley, a fine chalk dust texture and some milk powder stuff in there too. Finish has a particularly good amount of energy, and a gustatory crunch of pithy bitterness. Pretty hard to stop drinking.” 94 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
RRP $32 **SPECIAL 6 PACK BUY … Only $24.99 a bottle when you buy 6 of this wine**
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.