During the vintage of 2019 we embarked on a wild endeavour. The desire was to see how native yeast from different Australian flowers effected the flavour of the wine. Two different barrels of the same wine (a pinot noir rose) were inoculated from two different flowers; Marriwood Blossom Corymbia calophylla and Red Grevillea Grevillea banksii. With a third barrel fermented naturally as a control.
We started with a 20 litre starter culture. Vessels filled to the brim with flowers, topped with fresh juice and sealed. Once the fermentation began we transferred the fermenting juices into seperate barrels of pinot rose juice, leaving the flowers behind. We wanted to test the effect of the native yeast on the #avour of the wine, not the flower itself.
The wine fermented for over five months without additions. After fermentation was complete, a low addition of sulphur was added to each barrel and the wine rested for a year in oak prior to hand bottling without fining and filtration.
Simply, an Australian wine fermented with the yeast from Australian flowers.
Video: The starter cultures. These took 3 days to begin fermenting under inert conditions in sterilised bottles. Once fermentation began we transferred the juice 10% to a larger vessel, keeping the yeast and leaving the flowers behind.
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