Description
2022 VINTAGE SOLD OUT – 2023 vintage released in February 2023
Plénárius: full; complete; entire; absolute.
“Nothing added; nothing taken away.”
The Plenarius Viognier is made to be completely different, being a white wine made like a red wine.
Ingredients:
100% Certified organic & biodynamic grapes. Single vineyard Viognier grapes wild fermented on skins for 9 days. Matured in hogsheads for 11 months. Bottled unfined & unfiltered. Naturally amber in colour. No added sulphites.
Growing Season
The 2022 vintage was excellent. Winter was significantly wetter than average getting the vines off to a brilliant start leading into Spring which was cool with median rainfall. Summer was mild and dry apart from rain on the last day. Autumn remained mild with generally perfect mid-20s weather combined with cool nights ensuring steady even ripening across all varieties. The 2022 yields were good and the quality is great, a classic Barossa vintage displaying rich flavours with fine balance.
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 3rd. They were then destemmed to an 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/phenolics. The must was entirely wild yeast fermented with absolutely no additions. The wine was on skins for 9 days with ferment temperature ranging up to 26 degrees Celsius. At dryness the must was drained and the wine was filled to seasoned French oak hogsheads. It underwent natural malolactic fermentation in barrel and was matured for 11 months on lees prior to racking for bottling with zero additions, bottling as 100% grapes.
Tasting Notes
Colour:
Rich gold, bronze tint.
Aroma:
It is brilliantly lifted with floral perfume, apricot jam, and butterscotch, as well as sugared almonds, ginger spice, fresh hops and honey.
Palate:
The rich and sweet aromatics continue to the palate where the dry natural tannins bring line and structure to balance the affluence. It is a vastly flavoured wine with intense ripe white fruits throughout. There is an underlying oily roundness countered by a background of grainy minerality. This is a multi-dimensional wine with great dynamism and completed with a lengthy finish. It is a very engaging Viognier with its complex mesh of aromas, flavours and textures providing a provocative and enchanting drink.
Recommended Drinking:
Within 12-18 months from release.