Smallfry, Barossa Trousseau ‘Pimpernel’

More distinctive and unusual work from Wayne Ahrens and Suzi Hilder, and their old mixed vineyard in the Australia’s Barossa Valley.

If you’re new to Trousseau, it’s a variety more often found in France, in the Jura, but this example offers great typicity.

There’s tangy red fruit here – raspberry, cranberry and sour cherry, with floral hints of violets and hibiscus, underpinned by a mushroom-y earthiness, which is softened by a herbal quality – something like mint or lemon balm.

Medium bodied, with bright acidity and impressive persistence on the palate, it’s very food friendly, or makes an invigorating sipper.

Wayne Ahrens and Suzi Hilder cut their wine teeth with Jacob’s Creek, but wanted to make small batch, low intervention wine, without using systemic chemicals. So they quit their secure jobs and took on an old, mixed planted, biodynamic vineyard in Vine Vale, Barossa, which had been tended for the previous 52 harvests by Ken Schlieb.

2021, crown cap, 13% abv