Fraser Gallop Estate 2010 Parterre Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 6 bottle case

The Fraser Gallop Estate Parterre is very different to the usual fruit-driven, drink now style Margaret River Semillon Sauvignon Blancs. It has been inspired by the white wines of Bordeaux, wines which do not rely on primary fruit flavours but have layers of complexity and interest from the use of techniques such as barrel fermentation, wild yeast and time on lees. In November 2008, we held a tasting looking at seven of Bordeaux’s best white wines alongside seven Australian Semillon Sauvignon Blanc blends made in the more complex style. Olivier Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier travelled from France for the event and bought with him a vertical of his Bordeaux Blancs going back to 1979. This tasting demonstrated to us a number of things, firstly just how intriguing, complex and well structured these wine can be, secondly that this style makes a much better food wine than the more simple fruit driven styles of SSB, and finally the outstanding ageing ability of these wines. It is these factors which have inspired us to make the Fraser Gallop Estate Parterre. 70 % Semillon 30% Sauvignon Blanc

The name “Parterre” has a double meaning for us at Fraser Gallop Estate. In front of the main house is a beautifully manicured parterre garden, formal and intricate designed hedges that are best viewed from above. The translation of parterre from Latin is ‘on the earth’ similar to the word ‘terroir’ in French.

Winemaker's Notes

Vintage 2010 Another sublime season in Margaret River with one of the warmest and driest seasons on record. A return to normal rainfalls in winter (855 mm from May –September) saw the sub-soil moisture replenished for the long dry summer (76mm from October – April). Warm spring conditions without too much wind during November and December enabled most varieties to flower and set fruit well with more bunches/vine than normal resulting in yields up by 15-20 % across the board. Yields would have been considerably higher if it wasn’t for the 2 days of above 40C in mid- January that shrivelled and cooked berries that were fully exposed to the sun, however this event did not appear to affect quality in the reds as these berries dried up to nothing, however some Chardonnay was affected and sunburnt bunches were removed before harvest. The grapes are all hand-picked at Fraser Gallop Estate so this gives us a second opportunity to cull out any untoward bunches of grapes. The warm weather accelerated the ripening of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon which all came off in a flurry and made for a vintage that started 1 week earlier than usual. The conditions for March and April moderated and the conditions for ripening reds were perfect. On March 23rd a severe hail storm hit Perth and passed 50 kms away to the East of us luckily and we got very little rain from it. The average maximum temperature for March 2010 was 26.5C compared to 24.5C in 2009 so conditions were still a little warmer than we liked, however as far as vintages go we would rate this as one of our best yet.

Viticultural Notes In 2007 we planted 6.4 acres of Semillon on our estate in Wilyabrup. All our vineyards are VSP trellised at 3.60 m by 1.8 m to allow for ease of management and good sunlight penetration. The soils are generally gravely loams over a clay base 1.2 m deep. Sauvignon Blanc is a variety which performs better in slightly cooler areas, so for this reason we source our Sauvignon Blanc from a well known grower in the cooler sub-region of Karridale, and will continue to do so. Both the Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc are prudently irrigated in order to keep the vines in a healthy state with good canopies to avoid moisture stress and sunburn which will destroy the lovely aromatics of these varieties. The flavours we seek for the Parterre are in the riper profiles, so we are looking for lemony, citrus, fig rather than the grassy herbal elements, yet we want to retain vibrancy in the fruit and a good natural acid structure.

Winemaking Notes The Sauvignon Blanc grapes were harvested in the cool hours of the morning and delivered promptly to the crush pad, they were then destemmed, crushed and transferred to the press via the must chiller, cooling the fruit down to 8ºC. Once in our Bucher XPF 80 press the grapes were pressed with the automatic Ortal computerised pressing programme which is designed to gently press the fruit with minimal rotations of the press resulting in high quality juice with minimal phenolic pickup from the skins. The Semillon grapes were hand-picked into slotted picking bins which were then placed in our refrigerated container overnight to chill the fruit down to 8ºC. The following day the grapes were whole bunch pressed using the Cremant cycle (no rolling of the press) resulting in pristine juice. The juices were cold settled in tank at 8ºC, 3 days later the moderately clear juice was racked off gross lees and then transferred to barrels where they warmed up and wild fermentation started. Once fermentation was under way the barrels were placed in a 12 ºC cool room to control the rate of fermentation. The wine was then left to mature in barrel for a further 9 months before being blended, stabilised, filtered and bottled.

Nose

Aromas of cape gooseberry, lemon thyme, a hint of clove spice and floral elements in the mix

Palate

This barrel fermented style of Semillon Sauvignon Blanc is best described as fine acidity meets barrel texture, creating a wine that is not especially fruit forward on the nose or palate but is elegant, finely balanced with length and composure. A wine that really sings with food.

The palate is savoury in style with light tropical notes infused with grapefruit. Chalk and mineral texture from the steel barrel fermentation and a lick of creaminess from the French oak barrels completes the picture leaving a dry mildly creamy finish.

Cellaring

This wine, with a strong Semillon component in the blend, will repay extended cool cellaring for up to 10 years.