Description
Paul Scorpo has been quietly crafting beautiful wines in Mornington Peninsula alongside Australia’s top shelf cool climate winegrowers.
One of Paul Scorpo’s first jobs in life was in the cellar at Penfolds Barossa Valley winery. Since then the wheel has turned full circle through teaching politics, designing championship golf courses and running a successful landscape architecture business back to following his green thumb and planting a family vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula.
After extensive research of site and soil characteristics on the Peninsula, he settled on an old apple orchard at Merricks North with ancient clay soils, protection from the harsh cold winds coming off the southern ocean, a gentle slope and dual aspects, which combine to provide the site with ideal ripening conditions for a range of varieties. Paul and his family and their connection to the land are uncompromising in his quest to produce the area’s finest wines with closer plantings, more clonal selections. Vines are planted on north east slope (a brilliant sun trap) on red clay soils derived from Eocene volcanics dating back 40 million years. He has championed Pinot Gris which is also planted on the southwest slope towards Port Phillip Bay. Fine wine is in the Scorpo blood across generations from Sicily, Sardinia and Australia. Paul sources small parcels of fruit from other vineyards he manages on the peninsula to use in the Aubaine and Noirien wines. Scorpo Wines have depth, refinement and texture. They are recognised as a leader among the quality-focused producers of the Mornington Peninsula.
The fruit for the 2023 Scorpo Pinot Gris was grown on the old red volcanic soils of the Scorpo Vineyard at Merricks North. The small crop, averaging only 3 tonnes/hectare (1.2 tonnes/acre), was hand-picked in two batches on March 17 and March 22, slightly later than average.
Each batch was gently whole bunch pressed, with the unclarified juice fermented in old French oak barriques, where it remained for just over 5 months on gross lees prior to racking and bottling in November.
At this early stage, there are already some lovely lifted aromatics, with abundant spicy apple, lemongrass and honey dew melon, all reflecting the tightly wound flavours on the palate. With the cooler season, an apple-like acid provides a firm backbone, but the intensity of fruit within and a building creamy texture provides a delightful combination that will reveal an evermore complex and expansive palate with time.
RRP $43 Our Special Price $34.99 when you buy 6 or more of this wine
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.