Kalleske Plenarius Viognier 2012
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Winery/Brand: Kalleske
Cloudy scotch amber in colour. Extremely vivid and uplifting. Aromatics burst from the glass – flowers, fig, honey, mint, orange peel, musk, nuts and talc. Tremendously intriguing. Full flavoured with solid body. Texture is amazing – chewy and layered. Tannins are lightly present adding a subtle grip. Wine is soft and round but has balanced natural acid providing freshness. It is dry but with an oily roundness. Very lingering finish. Overall this is an enjoyable and enthralling wine. A complex mesh of aromas, flavours and textures providing a provocative and enchanting drink
The Story
“ORANGE WINES”: Currently all the rage in the repertoire of trendsetting sommeliers, an "orange wine" is one that is made more like a red wine. The grapes are crushed and left on the skins for an extended period. Normally white wines are crushed and separated from the skin straight away. So the grapes ferment in contact with the skins and seeds, extracting colour and tannin into the juice. Often this fermentation takes place in clay vessels (amphorae) or wooden barrels, a relic of ancient winemaking. The resulting colour can range from bright amber to a tawny brown. They can also be quite cloudy. The flavours can be rich and honeyed with some funky nuances. Also a nuttiness reminiscent of sherry can be present. They possess a texture and body similar to red wines, balanced with a minerality & fruit of white wines.
PLENARIUS DEFINITION (from the label): full; complete; entire; absolute “Nothing added; nothing taken away” ingredients: 100% certified biodynamic grapes.
GROWING SEASON: Vintage 2012 was a fantastic year. The wines from 2012 are outstanding and up there with 2010 and 2002 as the best wines to come out of our Kalleske winery. Vintage 2012 began with a good growing season of moderate rainfall and normal temperatures. Summer and Autumn were perfect with generally warm sunny days and only a few heat periods but nothing extreme. The weather was generally dry with an occasional shower of rain refreshing the vines. The perfect mid-high 20s weather ensured the grapes ripened steadily and evenly producing outstanding quality.
VINEYARD: Plenarius is from a single vineyard of Viognier on the Kalleske property at Moppa. The vines are low yielding and soil is shallow sand with clay subsoil.
WINEMAKING: The grapes were harvested in the cool of the night on March 12th. They were then destemmed to a small open top fermenter. It was treated like a red wine with hand pump-overs morning and night to circulate the fermenting juice through the skins extracting flavour and subtle tannin. The must was entirely wild fermented with absolutely no additions. The wine was on skins for 7 days with ferment temperatures ranging from 17 to 29 degrees Celsius. At dryness the must was pressed and the wine was filled to French oak hogsheads. It underwent natural malolactic fermentation in barrel and was matured for 10 months on lees prior to racking and bottling without fining or filtration.
TOP DROPS OF THE MONTH “Most of the trendy cloudy orange wines out there are quite pricey. This gorgeous, mandarin-syrupy, spicy fragrant, dry-finishing orange Viognier (biodynamic grapes, skins fermented, no additions) isn’t” Max Allen, Gourmet Traveller Wine, May 2013
92 POINTS “Kalleske has been a forerunner in growing grapes organically and biodynamically, and with both processes essential to the natural wine movement, it’s a good fit... If you’ve not tasted a natural wine, this promises a whole new wine experience. It’s a wild thing“. James Halliday’s Wine Companion June/July 2013
PLENARIUS DEFINITION (from the label): full; complete; entire; absolute “Nothing added; nothing taken away” ingredients: 100% certified biodynamic grapes.
GROWING SEASON: Vintage 2012 was a fantastic year. The wines from 2012 are outstanding and up there with 2010 and 2002 as the best wines to come out of our Kalleske winery. Vintage 2012 began with a good growing season of moderate rainfall and normal temperatures. Summer and Autumn were perfect with generally warm sunny days and only a few heat periods but nothing extreme. The weather was generally dry with an occasional shower of rain refreshing the vines. The perfect mid-high 20s weather ensured the grapes ripened steadily and evenly producing outstanding quality.
VINEYARD: Plenarius is from a single vineyard of Viognier on the Kalleske property at Moppa. The vines are low yielding and soil is shallow sand with clay subsoil.
WINEMAKING: The grapes were harvested in the cool of the night on March 12th. They were then destemmed to a small open top fermenter. It was treated like a red wine with hand pump-overs morning and night to circulate the fermenting juice through the skins extracting flavour and subtle tannin. The must was entirely wild fermented with absolutely no additions. The wine was on skins for 7 days with ferment temperatures ranging from 17 to 29 degrees Celsius. At dryness the must was pressed and the wine was filled to French oak hogsheads. It underwent natural malolactic fermentation in barrel and was matured for 10 months on lees prior to racking and bottling without fining or filtration.
TOP DROPS OF THE MONTH “Most of the trendy cloudy orange wines out there are quite pricey. This gorgeous, mandarin-syrupy, spicy fragrant, dry-finishing orange Viognier (biodynamic grapes, skins fermented, no additions) isn’t” Max Allen, Gourmet Traveller Wine, May 2013
92 POINTS “Kalleske has been a forerunner in growing grapes organically and biodynamically, and with both processes essential to the natural wine movement, it’s a good fit... If you’ve not tasted a natural wine, this promises a whole new wine experience. It’s a wild thing“. James Halliday’s Wine Companion June/July 2013
The Specs
| Region | Barossa, SA |
| Grapes | Viognier |
| Vintage | 2012 |
| Volume | 750mL |
| Packaging | Glass Bottle |
