01 November 2014
At last – a new and improved website! Easier ordering, beautiful photography and more detailed information... This coupled with new wine release dates make up some of the radical changes taking place here this year.
These changes have been made after receiving your feedback. We were told you would prefer to receive our wines more quickly after placing an order with us. Therefore our annual release will now take place in mid April of each year once the wines are ready for delivery.
Having been one of the very first wineries in Australia to sell via the Internet back in 2001, our still-original website had become very much outgrown and outdated! The new website will be much easier to use, navigate and place orders. It will also facilitate better communication with you in future.
To celebrate all of these changes, we will begin to offer a selection of bottle aged and rare award winning wines direct from our cellar. This will include a small release of the extraordinary 2010 and 2011 Estate Vineyard Chardonnay! These wines are limited to 3 bottles of each per customer.
You are now also able to buy our current release 2013 Nantua Chardonnay. Our tasting notes for this wine are as follows:
"Bright in colour; straw gold tinged with green Peach and nectarine fruit coming to the fore, then complex lees derived characters which mingle with ginger and orange zest aromatics. White stone fruits fill the palate in a controlled manner – textural roundness precisely framed by oak and acid. Fittingly, the flourish in the tail delivers a timely reminder of the mineral qualities from granite soils, with a dry and fine savoury finish."
Our next major release (2013 vintage wines) will be on 15 April 2015, as opposed to each November as we have done in the past. This means your wines will be already in bottle for prompt delivery once your order has been confirmed. Our En Primeur offer (2014 vintage wines) will also be made available at the same time. All our these wines will be offered at prices comparable to the last vintage.
On a final note, an enormous thank you to our outgoing Sales and Marketing Manager – Russell Branton and wife Tricia for 20+ years of dedicated service. Congratulations on your retirement!
Regards,
Rick Kinzbrunner
Beechworth's Granite Cave
18 September 2013The granite cellar at Giaconda Vineyard is the latest project of exceptional winemaker, Rick Kinzbrunner. Nick Stock travels to Beechworth in search of chardonnay, a granite cave and a vision for the future of Giaconda.
Rick Kinzbrunner has an enigmatic presence. Tall, slim and considered, he also has a reputation as a bit of a recluse. It may seem unsurprising then that his latest construct at his Giaconda property in Victoria’s Beechworth, happens to be a cave.
“My goal was always to grow the wine in granite soil,” Kinzbrunner says of his newest cellar, drilled and blasted into the granite rock at Giaconda. For him, it is the last link in the chain of a terroir to which he is deeply endeared: vines grow in granite, their grapes fermented and matured in a granite cellar.
Underground, the physical conditions are vastly better for wine maturation than the previous above ground facilities. Naturally cooled, the air is humid and alcohol is more likely to lower over time in this high humidity than concentrate in the arid, evaporative environment up on the surface.
Kinzbrunner calculates that there will be an average nett loss of around 0.5% in finished alcohol in wines made in the cave rather than a gain of around 0.5% in above ground conditions. This means he is able to deliver full, rich and powerful chardonnay at levels of around 13% alcohol by volume, instead of the previous norm that fell around 14% and without employing mech-anical climate control.
“I’ve stuck to my guns, refined my style and the wines I’m making now are the result. It’s the traditional stuff that’s probably closer to what they were doing hundreds of years ago rather than what many people are doing now.” RK
He has seen instant results in terms of refining wine style and quality. The first wine to emerge having been totally vinified inside the granite cave is the 2010 Giaconda Chardonnay and if this wine is anything to go by, the assessment is accurate.
Kinzbrunner is not prone to exaggeration and as one of Australia’s most capable and experienced winemakers; he has little need to stretch the truth. “It’s the first wine I’ve made that I’ve been truly happy with,” he says, “the culmination of everything I’ve tried to do and wanted to achieve.” The 2010 chardonnay is easily the best rendition of his signature white wine to date and the 2011 is developing handsomely in its shadow.
The inspiration for the cave project stems from Kinzbrunner’s time working in California. However, the impetus to embark on its construction is born of his regard for the granite terroir at Giaconda and the desire to chase down the very best and most unique quality in the wines grown and made there. His focus in terms of winemaking is both narrowing and deepening.
Nick Stock, Alquimie, Edition One