Chalmers Bush Vine Inzolia

A unique wine from a special site, Chalmers Bush Vine Inzolia breaks the stereotype. Bursting with personality and presence this wine speaks of the red sand and blue sky of the Murray Darling region more clearly than we could ever imagined. Luscious stone fruit and a lick of saltiness draw you in as the intensity of the palate sets in. A lingering flavour of peaches fades into a pleasantly mouth-watering grippy finish.

Inzolia is indigenous to western Sicily where it grown at low elevation in red sand and limestone soils, similar to those of our Merbein vineyard, although in Sicily it’s grown near the sea, not inland Australia. The Inzolia block in Merbein was designed as an experiment to test the limits of drought tolerance. Un-trellised and planted in a deliberate wide spacing to increase the footprint of each vine so it can capture as much natural rainfall as possible. Vines are grafted onto drought tolerant rootstock and planted in the albarello style, or bush vine as they’re called in Australia, each with a single stake. Some tying up of shoots is done but there is also canopy sprawl which allows the vine to shade the fruit and avoid any sunburn berries. Through vine and rootstock selection, we manage this vineyard with a combined rainfall + irrigation of around 300-380mm per annum, much less that traditionally thought and less that even the driest parts of the Mediterranean.

The Bush Vine Inzolia is hand-picked, usually in two or three stages to build complexity into the wine. The grapes are whole bunch pressed and fermented on solids in stainless steel using native yeasts then the portions are blended back together to make the final wine. It’s aged on fine lees for about six months before being hand bottled in our winery, unfined and unfiltered.