Spring Seed Wines are made from grapes lovingly grown in our family’s organic vineyard, located in the premium wine region of McLaren Vale, South Australia. The vineyard was established in the early 1970’s by Peter and Anthea Bosworth, and is now owned and run by their son Joch, who began the conversion to organic viticulture in 1995. The vines are fully certified ‘A’ grade organic by Australian Certified Organic, a process that takes four years and involves yearly audits and random sampling of produce.

The Spring Seed Wine labels are unashamedly inspired by vintage flower seed packets created at the turn of the last century. The colour, clarity and beauty of the original seed packets are quite remarkable. We chose three different flower images to adorn each one of our McLaren Vale wines, simply because they are quite lovely. The Aster Pinot Noir has the Aster (Callistephus chinensis), Foxglove (Digitalis pupurea) and Hollyhocks (Alcea rosea) labels.

A delightful fresh and stylish wine full of charm and poise; it is brilliantly showy in the glass. Aster Pinot Noir has a delicate, perfumed nose of bright red fruits with a fresh, juicy and characterful palate. Aster Pinot Noir may be enjoyed alone or matched with salads, cheeses, chicken dishes and charcuterie.

Vintage 2017: We had terrific winter and spring rains leading up to vintage 2017, a marked contrast to the previous year, proving once again if proof were needed, that every vintage is different. We had a cool early part to spring too, combined with the spring rain. Flowering was about 3 weeks later than the previous year which of course meant that vintage was 3 weeks later than normal, or as some old locals said sagely, back to the old normal. There was a very long and slow ripening period which is terrific for allowing grapes to develop their flavours. We had a pretty dry February March and April, once the spring rains finished in mid-January. Overall a late vintage with some incredibly promising reds and outstanding whites.

Winemaking: Back in the 1980’s Pinot Noir was big in McLaren Vale (as was Riesling!). Joch’s parents grew it to supply wineries with their sparkling base. As time went on other regions began to plant Pinot and so began the decline of this variety in McLaren Vale. We have a couple of blocks left and we use it to make a beautifully fragrant and silky smooth style. The idea is not to over-extract tannin – we don’t want to make a big Vale dry red. To this end, we employ a method called ‘carbonic maceration’ which means that the grapes are left to ferment (without being put through the crusher) in a big plastic bag in an apple crate. They ferment from within and in almost anaerobic conditions. The rest of the grapes are crushed and go through a more standard red wine making procedure, with open fermentation and pump-overs to extract a bit of colour and tannin. This component spends about 6 months in older oak before blended to the cab mac component before bottling.

Tasting Note

Aster has a gentle aroma of strawberries and plums, ripe but not over-ripe. There is the mildest whiff of spice too. The palate is silky and supple with those lovely red fruits swimming through the middle. Lovely, almost imperceptible tannins frame the wine and make it a most delicious drink.

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