Winemaker Bryan Martin tends his 2.6 acres of vines and makes the wine at the Clonakilla winery where he is the winery manager helping Tim Kirk steer those stellar wines into their bottles.

Apparently he’s a pretty mean cook. I’ve tried a couple of recipes from his cookbook Tongue and Cheek and they were a great success. Mental note: visit the Canberra region and try to blag a meal. That’s just how I roll.

Winemaking-wise, there’s a lot going on. Some carbonic, some skin contact, some whole-bunch pressing before fermentation in a mix of oak, cement, ceramic egg and inox and then to bottle without filtration. The resulting wine is a beauty; slinky and slippery and dangerously easy to drink. Bryan recommends trying it with roast chook. I reckon he’s right.

It’s the colour of watermelon juice … funny that, because I actually get some watermelon aromas in there, too, along with pink grapefruit, cranberry, white peach and just a whiff of strawberry.

It’s a pretty alluring smelling beastie with hints of soft spice, nougat and a liminal sense of some amaro herbs flitting about in the distance. In the mouth it has a beautiful texture. All pure and sexy in its ruby-red grapefruity glory. Slinky and supple with the gentlest tug of tannin on the roof of the mouth and a savoury minerality to its umami-rich tail. It’s wonderful drinking.

Ravensworth
2018 Pinot Gris
ravensworthwines.com.au