Tasting Notes
The Clos de la Connerie is a name that we have given to the part of the vineyard we first planted in 2012, a continuous north and northeast-facing amphitheatre of Pinot Noir. The vines here have a density of 12,500 vines per hectare and tend to produce a darker, more structured wine that seems to be built for very long aging.
As you can see, in 2019 we produced two bottlings of the Clos in order to better understand how this wine behaves through maturation in cask. Both bottlings are the same wine; we simply held one barrique of the final blend in cask for an additional four months (this is the version bottled with the red waxcap). Both wines will benefit from further aging although the red waxed version is clearly more open for business. Both wines are deep and powerful, yet still offer great seduction. We have no track record, but these wines taste like they will live for decades.
We used one-third whole-bunch in 2019. It’s still very early days for these muscular wines, especially the first bottling. We certainly recommend people open the late-bottled version first and hold back as much as they can on the black capsule version. No fining or filtration. Minimal SO2. Bottled by gravity, June 2020. There were 913 bottles produced of the first bottling (black cap) and 260 bottles produced of the second (red wax). - Rob Walters
Warekilla. The Wurundjeri name could translate as "Happy Place". Or "Place of Changing Winds".
Robert Walters searched for almost five years trying to find a site for his warekilla. He eventually settled on the place, Bullengarook on the southern foothills of Mount Macedon, to establish Place of Changing Winds. Years of experience in the wine trade and visits to the best sites and winemaking practices around the world all culminated in Rob's decision to put down roots around Macedon. The changing winds create a high diurnal difference in temperature, embraced by the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir fruit. Their vines are grown at extremely high density, ten times the norm, to encourage a community or single body of the plants as they develop their collective canopy, and dig their vines deep through the gravelly soils in search of water and nutrients, anchoring them against the wind. Fruit is low-yielding.
And as is the nature of the wind, Warekilla was not the only place to keep Robert grounded; Place of Changing Winds sources fruit from Heathcote for their two cuvées of Syrah and their Marsanne.
| Product Type | Wine Red Pinot Noir |
| Volume | 750ml |
| Country | Australia |
| Region | Victoria |
| Sub Region | Macedon Ranges |
| Winemaking Practices | Minimal Intervention |
| Vineyard Practices | Organic/Biodynamic |