Winemaking

 

Epsilon Wines are made in a new winery built at the Northern end of the property, overlooking the vineyard that gently slopes down towards the  Greenock Creek. Wine making operations are carried out by ourselves under direction from  Jaysen Collins, who makes wine under the Massena  label.

We have spent a long time in establishing and reworking our vineyard, so the wines have to be true to their vineyard origins. The advantage of growing your own grapes is that all vineyard operations are undertaken with a view towards wine quality. The grapes are grown using organic principles and are intentionally cropped low to produce fruit with rich fruit flavours and balanced acid and tannin levels. Sometimes a single vineyard can present challenges in producing interesting wines year in, year out. Working closely together over the vintage period, the grape intake off the property occurs over a four to six week period, depending on soil type, micro climate and desired ripeness levels to obtain complexity in the final blend.

Wine making is traditional and is intentionally hands off as to have as little an impact on the finished wine as possible. Open vat fermentation in small batches, with pumping over two times per day followed by gentle basket pressing and small French oak barrel ageing is undertaken for all the red wines. Each vineyard parcel is kept separate until final blending, as each wine ages in its own way and gives many options when completing the final blend.

Shiraz is the main variety in the Southern vineyards and represents most of the production. A new section of vineyard was planted with Mataro and Tempranillo on the Moppa Springs Road property and a new Hempel Road vineyard one the western side of Greenock was planted in 2007 which includes Montepulciano and Graciano next to some new plantings of Shiraz. The wine range will expand to include these new wine styles once the vines have matured and produce wine that is of the quality of the current Epsilon wines.