The nose shows white petal, pear and marzipan. There are notes of freshly cut straw, almond meal, honey and mandarin peel which push into flinty aromas with lifted oak tones of crème brûlée. The palate shows grapefruit, lemon, mandarin citrus notes with richer, more forward tones of apricot and fleshy peaches with cream. The ripe phenolic and acid weave around palate which give presence to the wine and are layered around notes of white pepper, charred greens and toffee apple.
This wine pair wonderfully with umami rich dishes, such as chilled tofu with soy, ginger and bonito flakes.
Although drinking well as a young wine, this wine shall reward careful cellaring for 10 or more years. Serve with a modest chill, not cold.

The winemaker, Stuart Dudine’s Alkimi Wines is built around his passion for both the Yarra Valley and Rhône varieties, with an exploration of Marsanne and Syrah at the core of his range, but the Yarra stars of chardonnay and pinot noir get plenty of airtime, too.

The Marsanne grapes were sourced from Wattle Glen Vineyard. A one-acre block of unirrigated vines located in Mount Evelyn, which is at the base of the Dandenong Ranges, Yarra Valley. Mount Dandenong is an extinct volcano which is some 373 million years old.
Vintage 2021 saw quite mild conditions throughout both the growing and ripening season. A largely dry ripening season created near perfect conditions for the grapes to ripen. Harvest was generally a week later that what is understood as the ‘new normal’. As the yields were somewhat low and weather was cool which meant the grapes ripened gently. This allowed for space and time in the winery to really soak up the magic of vintage and to get creative with the wines. It was an opportunity to really push the creative boundaries of winemaking.
The grapes were handpicked on the 20th March at ripeness when the pear, honey, mascarpone notes with bright acidity were present. A smaller, second pick was conducted on 26th March to provide richness and riper and deeper tones.
The wine is a story of three batches. The first pick was split in two where one batch saw a foot stomp prior to pressing, the other was a direct whole bunch press. The second pick was whole bunch pressed. All batches were kept separate until assemblage in December 2021, bottled unfiltered. All batches had no additions aside from the anti-oxidant/preservative sulphur dioxide