This Riesling comes from three clones on the Estate block. The vines were hand-harvested, destemmed and pressed into monolithic 650L cement eggs for fermentation with full solids. At the end of ferment, the wine and lees went into large stockinger foudre for two years to mellow out. It was bottled without fining or filtration.

A proper homage to the Rhone with an Australian twist, this wine is blend of 95% Shiraz, 5% Viognier. The grapes co-fermented with 20% whole-bunches in open-top fermenters, and were plunged daily for 3-6 weeks. It spent a year in barriques (20% new) and another in large-format foudre. According to Bryan, this is a wine of “red fruit, spice and flowers.”  There’s a lift and elegance that we’ve previously attributed to the small percentage of Viognier, but after tasting many vintages, it’s clear this is just how the Syrah from Bryan’s high-flying block looks. Bottled without fining or filtration.

This fruit comes from Yungarra Estate, where the vines face north and sit on a gravelly limestone base. They use a unique lyre training system giving a ballarina-esque canopy that lets in filtered, dappled light. This helps protect the grapes throughout the season and ensures a lovely development. The grapes were hand-harvested and whole-bunch pressed into amphora, puncheon, and barrel. It rested there until blending and bottling.

The Basket Town Chardonnay comes from the Udys vineyard in Picadilly Valley and the Commune of Buttons home site. The former sits at 450 metres' altitude and has red clay over sandstone, quartz, and schist.

Each parcel was direct-pressed in a slow cycle, and moved to barrel after settling. The wine took its time in the winery with a long, slow, natural ferment, and saw one winter on lees in barrel before racking into tank—with lees—for another winter. The lees acted as a protective layer to prevent oxidation and maintain great freshness in the wine. The Chardonnay shows the signature savouriness we’ve come to expect from Commune of Buttons’ whites, with a mineral throughline and great palate weight from this warmer vintage.

Most of the fruit for Denton’s Shed Pinot Noir comes from Block 6, situated on the vineyard’s cooler northeastern slope. This year, a healthy dose of fruit was included from the estate’s close-planted Block 4 perched at the top of Denton Hill. The vines are predominantly MV6 with smatterings of 115 and Pommard clones from the southwest side of the vineyard. The fruit was fermented spontaneously with 10% bunches and gentle plunging or pumpovers twice daily. After two weeks on skins, the wine was pressed to a combination of tank (10%) and old French oak puncheons (90%) for nine months’ maturation. The wine was bottled without fining or filtration.

From the western slopes of Leanganook or Mt Alexander. Dash Farms planted N/S sits 475m up. Quartz and feldspar sand, or decomposed granite and planted to i clones in the late 1990's. A multitude of picks. The base of the wine is essentially one rolling ferment in stainless steel at cooler temperatures. The handling of each parcel is individual to reflect the needs of the fruit as its ripeness changes, both over time and as we progressively work down the hill at Dash Farms. This stainless ferment was stirred and moved to old barrels once completely dry. A small portion (less than 10%) was fermented in younger French oak. We select our favourite barrels and blend in late summer, bottling in-house April 2025. Some sulphur added.

The first pick of the year was from Willoughby Bridge’s A Block, picked 8th of Feb. Direct pressed to Rosé with the latter part of the press fermented dry in barrel and later blended here. Followed by a later rosé pick from A-W block at Willoughby. Unusually at Chalmers, the Nebbiolo preceeded the Refosco harvets, owing to very low yields in the Nebbiolo. The macerated Nebbiolo portions in this year's wine came exclusively from the new Chalmers vineyard planting, the remnants after Pat had classified the row selection for his Pat Underwood wines.

These components were aged in various stainless and oak vessels according to their individual needs with various temperature and oxygen exposures depending on the tannin qualities of the individual wine. Pressing from all Colbinabbin reds were combined, and formed an important, delicious part of this wine. The wine was blended and retuned to barrel for a short period prior to bottling. Some sulphur added.

Winemaker Dave Mackintosh sourced his Grigio fruit from the Yarra Station vineyard in the Lower Yarra Valley. The steeply sloped, south-facing Yarra Station site has soils rich in granite and grey clay with ironstone running throughout. The fruit was picked early in the morning and immediately pressed to tank.

The fermentation started slowly, and the Yarra Station fruit was pressed directly to the same tank a few days later. Fermentation went for 18 days, with a peak temperature of 22°C. The wine was stirred a couple of times and matured for a few months before bottling.