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Great Value Rose + Gentle Folk + Ross Hill Tasting Saturday 19th 3pm-6pm

by Annandale Cellars

Great Value Rose

This week, we are highlighting our excellently-priced Rose we’ve just stocked up on as we enter the sunny end of the year. These are wines that we believe represent excellent value for money and are great in their own right.

The Gueissard is absurdly-priced for what you get - everything that you get from a classic Provence style Rose but at a better price due to the fact that this is sourced from the more general Mediterranee IGP. The Frederick Stevenson is a complex and fresh Barossa Grenache-based Rose. The same goes for the Bondar, although sourced from Mclaren Vale rather than Barossa, this probably my favourite Rose around this $30 mark in the store. The Crudo is a store-favourite made by Yarra Valley’s Luke Lambert. The Foreign Friends Rose is a fresh expression of oak-aged Nebbiolo from King Valley. Finally, The Spinifex Luxe Rose is a great Barossan Rose that we bought off the back of Peter Schell giving us a sample when he was in-store for a tasting a couple weeks ago. These are some fresh, affordable and interesting roses worth stocking up on for the summer!
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Gentle Folk

Gentle Folk are a small family winery based in the Basket Range of Adelaide Hills, farming 8 hectares across 5 different sites. Gareth and Rainbo Belton were both marine scientists before their love of food and wine dragged them to the Adelaide Hills where they started Gentle Folk in 2012 after spending some time with James Erskine (Jauma - recently in our store for a tasting) and Alex Schulkin of The Other Right. The estate has slowly gown over the past decade or so to where they are today.

The region of Adelaide Hills has had vines planted as early as the 1870s but did not experience a revival until a century later due to the difficulties of cool climate viticulture back in those times. The vineyards are located between 400m up to 650m above sea level with warm, dry summers but cool and rainy winters, with some areas like Summertown and Piccadilly receiving over 1000mm of annual rainfall. The higher altitude is beneficial for extending the growing season to allow more time for flavour and colour compounds to develop while retaining natural acidity. Gentle folk farm their vineyards organically, with some biodynamic influence with the hopes of preserving the natural beauty of the region. To help keep the soil and vines in top shape, they use green manure and flowering cover crops, grazing animals and various organic fertilisers.

We were lucky enough to taste through the Gentle Folk range recently and ordered in a dozen of our favourites. The ‘24 ‘Rainbow Juice’ is a fun blend of Pinot Gris, Sangiovese and Pecorino made from a blend of free-run juice, skin contact and direct press. This is delightfully zippy yet textural and dangerously easy to drink. We also have the ‘23 ‘Piccadilly Chardonnay’ which comes from a site of old vines on light loamy clay over sandstone with extensive quartz and schist rocks and rubble at 480m above sea level. This spent 11 months in French oak (30% new) before being racked to tank for 3 months and bottled. This was a fantastic Chardonnay that I believe sits in perfectly between old school and modern, fresh styles of Chardonnay, but leans slightly more towards the modern side. The ‘23 ‘Scary Gully Pinot Noir’ is probably the best Pinot I’ve had from the Adelaide Hills - already showing savoury, earthy notes as opposed to the juicy fruitier styles that often come out of the region. These are old vines at 620m above sea level on light loamy clay over sandstone with some quartz. This vintage was actually the coolest and latest on record but the extended growing season has paid off to produce an incredibly distinctive wine. These are some of the best wines coming out of the region and everyone should check these out!
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Ross Hill

In-Store Tasting

Saturday 19th 3pm-6pm

This week we’ll be pouring the wonderful wines of Ross Hill from Orange, NSW. The story started in 1994 when Peter and Terri Robson purchased the property when there were hardly any vineyards in Orange and was joined 12 years later by their son James and his wife Chrissy who now handle the day-to-day operations of the business. These are the wines that we’ll be pouring on the day:

Ross Hill Lily Sauvignon Blanc 2023

Ross Hill Max Pinot Gris 2023

Ross Hill Maya Chardonnay 2024

Ross Hill Jessica Rose 2023

Ross Hill Harry Pinot Noir 2023

Ross Hill Jack Shiraz 2022

Ross Hill Isabelle Cabernet Franc/Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 2022

Ross Hill Tom Cabernet Sauvignon 2022

All of these wines are from the family series, all carbon-neutral and all well-priced. This is a great chance to try some great-value NSW wine - see you there!
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