• Delivery
Wine clubWine clubWine clubWine club
  • Gift registry
  • Wishlist
  • FAQs
Xavier Bizot can make wine anywhere he pleases, he is a Bollinger and grew up amongst the Vignobles Superieurs of Champagne. Bizot has chosen to make wine alongside Brian Croser's family, from grapes harvested off three magnificent sites, on two paradoxically varied terrains. Planted to the salubrious Terra rosa soils atop an invaluable archeological dig at Wrattonbully, rich with the undisturbed fossils of ancient Cenozoic sea animals, Crayeres Vineyard was established right across the road from Tapanappa's illustrious Whalebone. The weather here is astonishingly similar to Bordeaux and makes an awesome Cabernet Franc. Xavier Bizot and Lucy Croser are also fortunate to take their pick of properties in Adelaide Hills. To wit, Charles (Chilly) Hargrave's.. The twin tales of terre a terre»
Established 1908, Redman's Coonawarra are still made by the Redman brothers from fruit grown to the original family parcels. The tradition began 1901 when Bill Redman, at the tender age of fourteen, made the journey to take up an apprenticeship at the John Riddoch wineworks and to labour amongst Coonawarra's founding vineyards. Bill Redman's earliest vintages were sold off to other companies but it was not until 1952 that the Redman family released their own wines under the moniker Rouge Homme. Redman was finally branded under its own label in 1966, it remains one of the most enduring marques in Coonawarra. Husbanded by the 4th generation, parcels from the 1966 vines are assembled into the estate flagship The Redman... The velvet virtue of old coonawarra vines»
Some precious old blocks of ancient vine Grenache still remain after a government sponsored program to cull unproductive vineyards during the 1980s. Yielding excruciatingly small harvests of the most characterful fruit, these wizzened old veterans deliver small batch vintages which are evocative of the old world classics from Cotes du Rhone. The enduring Wirra Wirra were established 1894, their eclectic range belies the splendour of small parcels which are separately handled and bottled for exclusive release. The Absconder draws fruit from vines planted a century ago, it merits a breathing and decant, an articulation about the sublime excellence of old vine Australian Grenache... The compelling case for old vines grenache»

Arakoon Viognier CONFIRM VINTAGE

Viognier McLaren Vale South Australia
$10 To $19 White All Regions
1 - 12 of 178
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 next»
1 - 12 of 178
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 next»
Arakoon
Arakoon aspire to make elegant, restrained and sophisticated wines that will complement food, as wine should be drunk with fine food and good company

Let there be no doubt, the wine is made in the vineyard. The source fruit can vary greatly from vintage to vintage. In order to obtain a certain degree of consistency, batches are processed as separately as possible followed by a final blending, assembling wines into unique styles. Elegance with power, aspirations which are not always easy to reach. Arakoon maximize quality by interacting with growers as much as possible, and by choosing growers who are interested in producing high quality fruit, rather than just high quantity. Processing, maturation, blending and bottling are also important and that is where the winemaking part comes in.

Arakoon

Arakoon aim at producing styles which the winemakers themselves would like to drink. Inspirational producers around the world include amongst others: Guigal, Graillot, Rayas, Clape, Pegau, Trevallon, Rousseau and J.J. Confuron (reds), and FX Pichler, Knoll, Coche-Dury, Marcel Deiss and JJ Prum (whites). Whithin Australia, Arakoon are fans of Mount Mary, Noons, Bowen's, Summerfield, Wendouree, Lakes Folly and Jasper Hill. Notably, Australia and McLaren Vale produces grapes that differ from the European favourites, so physical emulations are therefore impossible. The quality however that these producers routinely achieve is very much a target to emulate.

Arakoon believe that experimentation is the key to achieving higher and higher levels of quality. It is easy to make a prediction of what happens in response to certain treatments, however, any real answer will only come from trials. Tests are routinely conducted with synthetic corks vs. a range of natural corks, the number of times a wine should be racked, the effect of fining rates, primary fermentation in barrel vs. vat, pre- and post-fermentation maceration, etc... and there is more to come.

After tasting Arakoon you may become surprised that some of the wines taste quite different from most other South Australians, more elegant and understated perhaps. This is a stylistic objective resulting from extended maceration post-fermentation, the use of subtle new French oak amongst other old barrels and blending towards the above stated aim. These styles sometimes are a better match with food rather than big and overtly fruity wines.

Arakoon

Wines are graded into a big and a light or elegant group. The big group contains the Big, fat & gutsy (BFG), the Sellicks Beach and the Doyen. The remainder are more on the lighter side. Sellicks Beach/BFG blend is based on little new wood and wines that have a porty, jammy element in them, whilst reserve Shiraz and the doyen are more stamped by subtle new French oak and varietal aromas. The Lighthouse/DBB blend is an attempt at producing an elegant Cabernet Shiraz modeled after the likes of Dom. du Trevallon in Provence.

Arakoon don't own or manage vineyards but they have firm views on viticulture. Since inaugural vintage, Aakoon have brought in grapes from vines that have yielded miserably and from vines that have had reasonably large crops, from vines that were two years young, up to a hundred years old, from vines that have ripened their fruit early and late, and with varying degrees of ripeness (10.5 to over 16% potential alcohol!). In Summary, the best wine so far (doyen) have come from two year old vines that ripened early. Arakoon have seen examples where low yielding vines produce wine that is not too special, whilst reasonably high yielding vines give very nice fruit (and therefore wine). At vintage, Arakoon produce a large range of varying batches that differ in grape, geographical origin and winemaking treatments. Some vineyards are harvested at two ripeness levels. The different batches are kept separate all the way until blending. For such a tiny winery, Arakoon can end up with a substantial number of batches, between 15-25 depending on the vintage. Subsequently the batches are grouped according to style or potential. Not only structure, but flavours are considered.

In essence, Arakoon aim at styles, as opposed to grape varieties and origin. McLaren Vale is famous for big, fruity wines that are influenced by new american oak. Not all wines are that way of course, but, it could be argued that this is somewhat of a South Australian style, if any. Arakoon on the other hand are quite subdued and different stylistically from the South Australian style. It comes down to a consistent employment of post-ferment maceration and choice of oak. Blending also plays a role. Like Frank Sinatra, Arakoon like things done their own way! The only way to really find out for yourself is not to read, but to try it out in practice.

Arakoon