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This wine is the sum of three vineyard vineyards, two of which are in Henty and the other in Geelong. Ray Nadeson is a big fan of the Henty region, valuing the cool nature of the fruit from his high-elevation, windy sites. “As a region, it’s very underappreciated,” he tells us. Jack and Lois Doeven’s well-established cool site in Drumborg (Henty) is home to schist soils and very low-yielding vines, whereas the Vaughn vineyard sits on clay and limestone soils. The Hillside Haven vineyard is a small, three-hectare site planted in 1990 in Geelong. Sitting at 230 metres on the slopes of Mount Anakie, the soils are granitic and loamy, and plantings are a hectare each of Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
In the quest for maximum flavour and texture, Ray picks his Pinot Gris fruit over a number of passes. Ferments take place in small batches in new wood, with some portions seeing up to 48 hours of skin contact. The wine then matures in foudre on fine lees for a few months before bottling. This is Pinot Gris as it should be: complex and detailed with a fleshy core, zippy and well-integrated acidity and plenty of savoury nuance at play. There’s a lot of wine in the glass!