Chalmers Fiano

The top cru white wine from our Heathcote vineyard, Chalmers Fiano is a wine that is delicious on release and also ages with aplomb. It has balanced fruit weight in combination with driving acidity, chalky texture and some creamy softness around the edges from the lees contact in barrel. A fabulously versatile food wine it’s fine enough for seafood and assertive enough to pair with game or richer light meats. What’s not to love.

Of all the grape varieties we grow at Chalmers, Fiano is our star performer in the vineyard. It’s a viticulturists dream, upright growing, balanced yield, great bunch positioning, hardy grapes and naturally high in acid. Harking from Campania, it’s adapted well to growing in many different regions in Australia including our Heathcote vineyard where it was planted in 2009. The cold nights and warm days are perfect for developing great flavour, intensity and concentration while maintaining freshness and drive.

Chalmers Fiano is hand-picked and whole bunch pressed with free run juice being transferred to a chestnut botte (large barrel) and some stainless steel for fermentation using wild yeast. Ferment is usually slow and steady and once dry the wine remains on full less in the botte for aging up to 12 months. We settled on this style of winemaking for the wine as the natural high acid of fiano means it can be very lean and austere in its youth. The oxidative nature of the chestnut along with the texture built in from the lees gives some softness to the wine, balancing the driving length.