Delatite Winery - Estate Cuvee Gewurztraminer
Delatite is unique in offering the only Sparkling Gewurztraminer in Australia. Made only from grapes sourced from their Mansfield vineyard.
The fruit for this wine is whole bunch pressed to obtain the best juice. Fermentation is carried out by wild yeast which gives a spicier flavour profile.
After primary fermentation the wine is triaged into bottles and it undergoes a secondary fermentation which gives the sparkle to this wine. It was then laid down to mature in this bottle on its lees for a year and was then riddled and disgorged by the traditional process to remove the yeast in the bottle which is then topped up and corked.
This is one of our favourite Delatite wines and is perfect for that French75 cocktail!
We have had a lifelong relationship with Delatite Wines having first visited the winery in the early 80's and we currently make their range of Schnapps, available at the winery. A trip to Mansfield is not complete without a visit to Delatite Winery.
In 1967 Robert Ritchie, third generation beef and prime lamb farmer at Delatite, went on a ski holiday at Mt Buller, with Jim Irvine, “The Master Merlot Maker”, from the Barossa Valley. One can only imagine what they discussed, but twelve months later, to everyone’s surprise, 500 vine sticks were left at the bottom of their drive. His wife Vivienne planted them in her vegetable garden and in the spring of 1968, with the help of their friends, they planted their first vineyard. For the next ten years they worked in collaboration with Peter and John Brown from Brown Brothers, growing varieties and developing wine styles suited to their climate.
In 1982 they built their own winery and cellar door. Vivienne took on the marketing and selling, Robert and their son David worked the vineyard and they employed their daughter Ros as the winemaker.
The winery is now run by David, with the assistance of the hard working and innovative winemaker, Andy Browning.