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Sparkling Picpoul Blanc white wine grown in NSW from vine material brought personally brought by an Oysterman for seafood lovers. Specialist Wine Sponsor Narooma Oyster Festival.

Contentious Character is a modern and quirky brand based out of the ACT, but with vineyards across many areas of NSW. Their Organic Cowra Verdelho is impressive.Delicate green straw. Plush Verdelho aromatics of full-ripe yellow melon, guava and green pineapple. Bright, positive and opulent throughout, delivering tropical fruit, good balance and gentle length. A confident modern example of the variety.

A lovely off white, copper hue to the wine. Not quite rose, but a really appealing blush. The nose has mandarin peel, fennel and a touch of funk and wet earth. Palate is racy, with cumquat and dried flower notes. Finishes with a vanilla note, and a savoury, phenolic bite. Theres skinsy and bunchy notes throughout, but they are in harmony with the pristine fruit and energy of a white wine from this cool, humid year.

Oak Maturation: 9 months in new and one year old French oak barriques. Monthly batonnage on lees. Vintage: The 2016 vintage cold and wet in the early part of the season. The temperature then spiked in early October continuing to a mixture of warm days wet days and cool dry nights in the latter part of the season. Most rainfall was in the pre Spring growing period with drip irrigation required towards the end of the growing period around April. Winemakers Comments: Only free run juice used in this wine, inoculated with Burgundian yeast strains. Barrel & malolactic fermentation at 20 degrees celcius. Lees stirring over a nine month storage period.Tasting Note: The colour is a vibrant straw with tinges of pale green. The nose shows peach and melon characters with subtle spicy vanilla wood characters. Undertones of cashew, butterscotch and vegemite umami from extended lees contact and careful oak selection. The pallet is showing rich peach and pear fruit with spicy undertones. Extended lees contact in French Oak barriques adds dimension and length to the wine providing great texture, intense flavour through the length of the pallet. The wines finished dry with crisp acidity and a gratifying creamy finish. The extra bottle age has enhanced the pallet texture and mouth feel.Food: Raw and lightly cooked shellfish like crab and prawns, steamed or grilled fish, fish pâtés, fish, chicken or vegetable terrines and pasta or risotto with spring vegetables. Also goes well with creamy vegetable soups.

Fume Blanc is a term use for wood aged/treated Sauvignon Blanc, made famous by the Sancerre wine region of France. Pale straw in colour with youthful green tints, the bouquet explodes with grassy and elegant distinctive Sauvignon Blanc and asparagus/passionfruit/lime characteristics with rich vanilla wood overtones. The intense herbaceous fruit dominates on the palate with soft tannin and vanilla wood characters. The flavour fills the mouth and has a long lingering finishing with clean crisp acidity typical of an elegant cold climate white wine. Crisp and sophisticated this full bodied wine would be an ideal aperitif or serve with its perfect food partner steamed asparagus or with fine cuisine such as freshly chucked oysters.

Colour: Vibrant light straw with tinges of pale green.Nose: Aromatic citrus blossom and floral perfume notes.Palate: Natural balance and harmony punctuated by a subtle floral perfume between acidity and sweetness. Intense lime and mineral flavours add great length to the wine and the lower alcohol of 8.5% entices a second glass.

This is named after the aromatic compounds stored in the skins of Moscato Giallo. This is a blend of Friulano (45%), Riesling (26%), Moscato Giallo (19%) and Malvasia Istriana (7%), all from Quealys Balnarring home block. The grapes were added to a rolling ferment (as they were harvested) to open-top amphorae, and the wine spent six months on skins. It was then basket-pressed, roughly settled and allowed to mature in old French puncheons before being bottled 12 months later.

This Merlot displays forest fruit and plum characters, dark chocolate flavours in the mouth, with a supple medium weight tannin finish. Being fruit off the older Robert Stein vineyard block that was planted back in 1989 has helped add complexity to this early drinking style.

The fruit for this Riesling was grown on a vineyard in the Orange region, which is situated 1000m above sea level. In the glass: Pale lemon straw.On the nose: Pure lime lift with a touch of honeysuckle. On the palate: Intense and pure with a zesty core of lemon and lime, a quinine-like mouth-feel and long crisp acidity on to the almost chalky finish. Retrained yet powerful.