2023 A Pound of Flesh Skin Contact Vermentino

The vermentino grape can be found in several regions on the northern Mediterranean coast as well as the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. Whilst it does change somewhat depending on the region, it always retains a freshness and bite that I love. I’ve made vermentino wines in the past, but this was the first from a Victorian vineyard. When I saw how the colour of the skins was developing as the fruit approached ripeness in 2021, I made a snap decision to make a skin contact style! Fruit was harvested early on a morning in late March and transported to the winery. The grapes were transferred to open fermenters, plunging at least once per day for eight days. After pressing the wine was settled in stainless steel then transferred to mature oak puncheons. After five months the wine was racked to tank, cold settled then bottled without fining or filtering. Although I had made vermentino under a different name in previous years, since I introduced this particular wine in 2021 I was more interested in highlighting the style rather than the variety. The fleshy nature of the wine made conjured a concept famously introduced by William Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice when the character Shylock requires a pound of flesh for non-payment of a loan.