I guess there is a lot of pressure making this wine
Every year I feel it. My family has been growing chardonnay in Margaret river since I was born. They make really good Chardonnay, really really good chardonnay, some of the best in the country, if not the world. The bar is set pretty high. Cullen won the decanter trophy for their Chardonnay a few years back and Pierro was featured on the front page of Decanter with theirs.
'They say magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect. I hope to create a little magic with this wine.'
I get nervous, living up to expectations, not being as good as my peers, fucking it up. I know this is all a bit introspective and self-indulgent but that’s how I feel. I don’t want to send this wine to review because I get nervous they will say its crap. I should know this grape, I should know how to make it, but the more I learn about it the more complex it becomes, the more it humbles me, the more I realise I don’t know and how luck has played such a big part in not just the previous vintages but in me growing as a winemaker. But all of this stuff, all this stuff that weighs down on me, pushes me. It pushes me to make the best wine I can. It pushes me to find the best vineyards and pick the grapes when they are just right. It pushes me to reach that bar and go past it, to create my own legacy. Why do I want to make a Chardonnay? This is a grape that’s part of my history, part of my future, and I guess in a way part of who I am. “
'The more I learn about it, the more complex it becomes, the more it humbles me, the more I realise I don’t know'
This is a wine that I will spend my whole life trying to learn about, to craft, to perfect. My aim, to make people feel something when they drink it, because I feel something when I am making it. To make people think, to make people wonder. They say magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect. I hope to create a little magic with this wine.