Stargazer Tupelo 2025 Pinot Gris/Riesling/ Gewurztraminer/Pinot Blanc

This unusual blend mirrors the famous Alsatian 'Gentil"styles marrying the body of Pinot Gris, the exuberance of Pinot Blanc with the spicy aromatics of Gewurztraminer and the finesse of Riesling. Pale yellow in colour with green flecks, the nose is perfumed and lifted showing honeysuckle and jasmine notes with dried pear spiciness and a hint of honeyed beeswax. There is a glossy texture to the palate, with the richness framed by subtle phenolics providing both persistence and length.

With relatively normal winter rainfall, budburst commenced on cue in mid-September.
Cool spring conditions (and a frost scare on 26 October) for the next few weeks restricted rapid shoot growth until soil temperatures started to warm up in early November. Some welcome rainfall in late December kept things ticking along with warm weather conditions contributing to an early and even flowering across the Coal River Valley. The warm conditions continued through the start of 2025 with a couple of heat spurts in late January and February pushing all varieties through veraison relatively quickly. The dry and warm conditions resulted in optimal conditions across all blocks with larger than average bunch weights recorded as harvesting started in mid-March.

Located in the Tea Tree subregion at the northern end of the Coal River Valley, the original 1ha vineyard on Back Tea Tree Road was planted by Norm and Jan Gangell in 2004. Pretty much half and half riesling and pinot noir, the property (eleven hectares in total) is also home to an olive grove. I took over in 2016 and in late 2017 expanded the vineyard to include an additional two hectares of vines: more pinot noir (four clones), some chardonnay (another four clones) and more riesling. Stage two of the expansion was planted in October 2021: more pinot noir (two clones), gamay, pinot blanc, riesling, pinot gris and gewurztraminer.

Palisander Vineyard (as I have named it) is located on brown dermosol soil over jurassic dolerite, the igneous rock which gives over half of Tasmania its distinctive geological formations (think the rocky outcrops on the Tasman Peninsula). The soil is particularly high in calcium which is a positive indicator for quality grapes, being associated with thicker skins and slower ripening. Whilst I am still very new to this whole grape grower caper, myself and my new vineyard manager Guy Young are fervent believers in sustainable farming, biodiversity and regenerative agriculture. As part of this approach, we use sheep in the vineyard during winter for weed control, chickens free range throughout the year and scratch around for bugs, bees contribute their pollination magic (and honey) and since 2020 we have planted over 1000 native species on the property.