May 2026 Releases
Today is exciting as we release our latest new white wine to the portfolio. The 2025 Sandown Marsanne Roussanne is exotic and brimming with lemon acidity and ginger spiced pineapple, banana and apricot fruits while daffodil and frangipani florals take it to another level.
The dry growing season of Spring time and Summer 2024 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.
Hand harvesting of 2.91 tonnes occurred at 7am while the grapes were still cool. 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 24 hours for skin contact maceration for added texture, colour and flavour extraction. After 24 hours the settled juice was then pressed on our press on a super gentle cycle and transferred in to another stainless steel settling tank for natural clarification, this time without skins. After 24 hours settling we transferred the stabilised and naturally clarified juice into French oak barrels for a wild yeast fermentation. 5 barrels fermented the entire 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.
On the nose there’s depth of spice atop of floral white and green fruits. Frangipani, Nashi Pear, red apple and honeydew melon with notes of ginger, nutmeg, mace and white pepper set amongst chamomile, honey and bees wax. With air notes of pineapple, banana and banana skin, oatmeal, macadamia, white tea and a touch of peach and apricot emerge. The nose has a full helping of character in whats best described as a full bodied white with many fruit layers and vivid spice details and balancing natural acidity. The palate staining harmonic resonance of flavour across the finish is impressive also. There’s controlled intensity on display and amazing depth of flavour but also brilliant counter control of acid and structure. The decadence on the nose from the Marsanne is counterweighted by the bright acidity from the Roussanne. The 51% Marsanne to 49% Roussanne ratio yields a compelling wine and confirms our experimental thinking Marsanne would perform well in Blewitt Springs.
The Wine Companion scored the wine at 93+/100 with the following tasting note “A new wine for Clarendon Hills. It’s white – an interesting development at such a red heavy address. This is an intensely exotic wine, textural, mouth-filling, yet also charged with vigorous acidity and relatively trim through the palate, at least from what the nose suggests. Baked quince, poached pear with clove and cinnamon, pickled ginger, crystallised lemon, salted praline and some oak spice. It’s opulent, looks a bit of botrytis, even in the dry conditions of ’25, with brewed tea, lemon curd and buttered toast notes. That works, though, as long as you’re up for the ride. 93+/100 James Halliday’s Wine CompanionThe Liandra and Domaine Clarendon Syrah’s are also super value for money and well worth having a look.
