Clarendon Hills Sandown Marsanne Roussanne 2025

Region

Estate grown, single vineyard Marsanne and Roussanne patches grow side by side at the acclaimed Clarendon Hills Sandown Vineyard, located on the western side of Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale. Deep Maslin Sands typify the region and this vineyard's terroir composition. Below the sands a sub-terrainial layer of clay enhances soil moisture retention and assist's the Marsanne and Roussanne vines to maintain freshness and acidity. The Marsanne and Rousanne patches are approximately 6 acres in respective size and are 12 acres in total. Vineyard yields are carefully monitored so both varietals ripen at the same time and co-fermentation can occur.

Conditions

The dry growing season of Spring time and Summer 2024 and forged the 2025 harvest long before we picked grapes in late January, in what was a record earliest start in our 37 years of company establishment. A lacklustre dry winter in 2024 bought about early bud break and subsequent early flowering. Dry conditions across this period created extremely small bunches and tight little clusters of small to medium sized berries. The warmth of 2024 and 2025 Summer coupled with over 150 consecutive days of no rain saw the 2025 harvest begin quickly and very early as the microscopic yields on the old vines were ripened without haste. The Marsanne and Roussanne patches are side by side on our Blewitt Springs Sandown vineyard. The deep Maslin Sands here sprawl across the entire vineyard with this vineyard section home to a subterrainial clay layer right below where the twin varietal patches lie at a recession point of the hillside. The white benefit from utilising the slightly additional moisture content located deep below the sands.

Winemaking

The grapes were 100% destemmed and passed through a crusher with settings of 50% crushed berry and 50% whole berry proportions and then relocated in to stainless steel settling tanks for 5 days for skin contact maceration and added texture, colour and flavour extraction. After 5 days the settled juice was then pressed on our pneumatic press on a super gentle cycle and transferred in to another stainless steel settling tank for natural clarification, this time without skins. After 5 days settling we transferred the stabilised and naturally clarified juice into French oak barrels for a wild yeast fermentation. French Oak barrels fermented the vintage over the course of 30 days. The post fermentation arrest of Malolactic fermentation was undertaken and the wine sat on lees in barrel for another 5.5 months. The wine was then racked off lees to stainless steel tanks to settle and begin final natural clarification. After another 5 months clarifying in stainless steel the wine was bottled without fining or filtration.

Maturation

Barrel fermented and Stainless Steel matured for 11 months.

Grape Variety

51% Marsanne, 49% Roussanne

Closure

DIAM

Production

660 Bottles

Winemaker

Roman Bratasiuk