About the Producer

In a very short space of time, Stephen Pannell has gone from being one of Australia’s best and brightest young talents to one of their most lauded winemakers. He is a two-time winner of the fabled Jimmy Watson Trophy, the most prestigious wine award in Australia, and also won the top prize at the Alternative Varietals Wine Show three times. Stephen moved into his own McLaren Vale winery in 2014, and now owns 36 hectares of vineyard. This control over his fruit has enabled him to take quality to an even higher level. One of the key factors behind his success is the freshness in all his wines, something he achieves by picking earlier. “I can only pick early due to better viticulture”. As with all his wine projects, Stephen’s winemaking philosophy remains steadfast: fruit grown in the right place with considerable attention in the vineyard requires minimal intervention in the winery.

Vineyard and Winery

Fruit was sourced from Block 10 Oliver's Vineyard in McLaren Vale and Hunt Vineyard in Tatachilla. The grapes of Oliver's Vineyard are grown by neighbours of Stephen and Fiona, the Oliver family, at their vineyard on Oliver's Road in McLaren Vale. The ten-year old vines are set on a sheltered east-facing slope growing in sandy loam over clay. The grapes from Tatachilla are grown on slightly flatter, also east-facing slopes, with closer proximity to the coast. As one of Italy’s oldest cultivars, Fiano is at home in Campania, Basilicata and Sardinia. The proximity to the coast and warm dry summers of these regions bear a striking similarity to McLaren Vale, and both sites are perfectly suited to growing this Mediterranean white variety.

The Hunt vineyard was harvested in February and the Oliver’s vineyard in early March. The grapes were separately pressed gently and settled as cold juice, before being blended in mid March. Fermentation began in stainless steel and 75% was completed in 5-year-old smaller format oak, which was then matured for 8 weeks on lees in larger format oak after malolactic conversion. Final blending was in late June and the wine was bottled in July.