Price:	QTY:
Tapannappa Foggy Hill Pinot Noir 2008 South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula gives its name to a wine zone embracing the warm McLaren Vale and Langhorne Creek regions – source of generous ripe wines. But the peninsula juts further south, swinging westward into the Great Southern Ocean, producing towards its tip the significantly cooler, wetter climate that lured Brian Croser into planting pinot noir in 2003. This is the second Tapanappa wine from those young vines – and it makes a strong case for Croser’s choice of site. It’s early days yet, and we’ll have to see how the wines mature. But right now it’s a gem – fragrant, finely sculpted and lusciously flavoured, featuring bright fruit notes as well as savouriness and with loads of soft, persistent tannins giving structure. www.chrisshanahan.com, 12th July 2009 Chris Shanahan Tapanappa 2008 Pinot Noir from Foggy Hill Vineyard is of medium plus colour intensity and cerise in hue. The aromas are ripe and exotically fragrant of preserved lack cherries and mulled wine spices with a ripe mulberry component. The flavours are rich, sweet and spicy, and are balanced against the tannin and acid without the interference of alcohol. The tannins are significant, but soft and savoury, and the whole wine is melded into a complex but seamless fabric of aromas, flavours, and tastes and texture. This is the second exciting wine of the new Pinot Noir terroir at Maylands Farm at Parawa at the apex of the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia. Brian Croser Interesting wine this - it tastes distinctly different to most Australian Pinot. There’s plenty of sweet spicy oak on opening (it subsides) and then come red fruits with some dark cherry. Medium bodied, fresh and firm with particularly attractive kitten tongue tannins. There’s some alcohol warmth too, although it’s not distracting, and a firmer sappy undercurrent underwriting its serious structure and nature. At the moment it looks somewhat disjointed - but I’m guessing it will pull itself together pretty well. Clearly a promising site for Pinot Noir. Drink : 2011 - 2017 91+ points Gary Walsh, The Wine Front "We are determined to use the most expressive and unique terroirs of Australia to create Australian fine wine of distinction" Brian Croser, Jean-Michel Cazes, Arnould d'Hautefeuille In February 2003, the Croser family purchased Maylands Farm at Parawa on the Southern Fleurieu Peninsula, just 8 kilometres from the Great Southern Ocean to the South. Maylands farm was purchased with the specific intention of growing the finest "sea air, grass fed" prime lambs. A review of the climate statistics, as well as the slope geology and soil features, quickly convinced Brian Croser that Maylands Farm provides a unique opportunity to grow the fastidious Pinot Noir variety. Foggy Hill is situated at the top of the Fleurieu Peninsula, at 350 metres above sea level, and is named for the summer and autumn fogs that frequently roll up to the spine of the Fleurieu Peninsula from the Great Southern Ocean. It is composed of 67 million year old ironstone, which has generated free draining soils of adequate fertility to support moderate vineyard capacity and low vigour vines. The climate here is the coolest in South Australia, at 1135ºC days average heat summation for the growing season, being cooler than Burgundy. The maritime climate of Foggy Hill has very cool days and relatively warm nights, which allows the vines to produce intense and fragrant aromas and flavours at moderate alcohol levels. The North-facing slope of Foggy Hill was chosen for the first planting of vines in this special part of the Fleurieu Peninsula. By Christmas of 2003, 2 hectares of Foggy Hill were planted to 3 different Bernard clones of Pinot Noir on devigorating rootstocks. The vineyard was planted with the intention of growing the grapes for the Tapanappa partnership. The vines are intensively planted on very narrow rows, 1.5mx1.5m, or 4,444 vines/hectare, to allow 10cm between each shoot for maximum ventilation warmth and light. The fruiting cane is only 500mm above the ground to take ripening advantage of ground warmth at night. A further 2 hectares of Pinot Noir were planted on Foggy Hill in 2006. Dr. John Gladstones, in his wonderful book "Viticulture and Environment", says of the area around Foggy Hill: "At least in climatic terms the lower Fleurieu Peninsula has arguably the best conditions of all in mainland South Australia for table wine production."  In the 2007 vintage, Tapanappa harvested the first grapes grown in the lower Fleurieu Peninsula, Foggy Hill Pinot Noir.