If you are a passionate wine person, you’re likely to be aware of the wine region in France known as Bordeaux. It is obviously a very old and highly esteemed wine region, with wine being produced there since the Romans. It is also the spiritual home to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and blends. The scale of the region is enormous, packed with history, colourful characters and architectural feats that make it the focus of many books, wine being just a small part of it.
With over 20 years of making world-class Australian Chardonnay, Stuart Pym shares his love affair and winemaking philosophy in crafting his precious Margaret River Chardonnay.
Our tiny patch of vines in the southern part of Margaret River is very much off the beaten track. There’s no cellar door and it’s very much a labour of love; pruning, picking and harvesting and then bottling our tiny parcels of Flowstone wines on site. It’s isolated, being 17km south of the Margaret River township, but I truly enjoy the serenity that this spectacular location provides.
The 2020 vintage will go down as a tumultuous and remarkable one all around the world. Not just from the general world concerns at the moment with COVID-19, but remembering the droughts and fires across much of Australia. It will certainly hold a marked place in history.
The Flowstone vineyard was crop thinned twice: early in the season to encourage even shoot growth and at veraison, to fine tune the crop load and to take out late ripening bunches.
