2020 Loosen Barry Wolta Wolta Riesling

The grapes for this wine are grown in an area of the Clare Valley known as Wolta Wolta, which is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘good water’.

On 26th February 2020, ten tonnes of Riesling was hand harvested and sorted from Block 18 (planted in 1979) at our Lodge Hill vineyard. We harvested the fruit at 12 .0 Baumé. Fruit was stored in a cold room overnight to bring the temperature below 10˚C. Once destemmed and crushed, the fruit was then pressed into stainless steel for 12 hours to settle, before being racked into the
3,000 litre German oak ‘Fuder’ cask.

The light lees were racked which assisted a wild ferment to take place after five days. Fermentation took four weeks with the temperature maintained at 18˚C. When residual sugar was below 10g/L, cooling was turned on to arrest the fermentation at 5g/L, achieving sugaracid balance. The wine then rested on full yeast lees for 18 months at 10˚C before being transferred to stainless steel where it sat on fine lees at 1˚C for a further 1 month. Our 2020 Wolta Wolta was bottled on 3rd September 2021 and, after spending a year in bottle, was released on 1st Feburary 2023. Alc 12.1%, Total Acid 7.2g/L, pH 3.03