Bowerbird
Macedon Ranges, Victoria
Kirilly Gordon’s enviable winemaking experience at Hanging Rock Vineyard, Bindi, Bress, overseas in Friuli Venezia-Giulia and the Southern Rhône led to her recent appointment at Yarra Valley icon Denton, where she produces some of the region’s most recognised wines.
Bowerbird is a natural continuation of her passion as a modern, environmentally conscientious winemaker. As the name suggests, the assortment of wines is eclectic and eye-catching. Two wines are from the renowned Malakoff vineyard in Victoria’s Pyrenees (the spicy Shiraz and polished Nebbiolo), while the textural skin-contact Viognier is from the Bellarine Peninsula.
Kirilly’s inspired focus on Nebbiolo, Shiraz and Viognier has been capturing wine drinkers’ imagination since 2016. Her then newfound love for Condrieu, along with her friendship with fellow vigneron Christina Gillies of Rupert’s Ridge Vineyard, compelled, challenged her even, to make her first Viognier. Since then, her wines have earned her a spot among the region’s top emerging winemakers who are reshaping the winemaking landscape with their refreshing vision for the future. These are made uncompromisingly and with cutting-edge precision, which puts them right at the top of wine lists.
Sourcing fruit from one of the state’s most celebrated sites that supplies precious material to winemaking luminaries of our times, Kirilly is driven partly by intuition and feel, partly by science. However, her close relationship with growers is the overriding factor in the pristine quality of the wines she produces from their sites.
It’s our greatest pleasure to include Bowerbird Wines in our Victoria portfolio and with that, continue to build and strengthen bonds with our customers, thanks to this small yet characterful selection of wines from the great Victoria gold country.
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Vaite Teriierooiterai – Master of Wine Business, AWAC and WSET Diploma candidate
2023 Viognier
The fruit came from the Kenny's vineyard at Bellarine Estate, where a maritime climate with basalt soils prevails. Luckily, disease pressure was low that year, unlike the part four years which were heavily impacted by La Niña’s downpours. This Bellarine vineyard seemed to have missed most of the rains before harvest and the sea breeze dried the vines out from any rain they did get.
Winemaking:
The fruit was selective machine harvested in the cool early morning of the 5th of April in immaculate condition, with spot-on flavour and acid balance with a Baume of 12.6 and pH of 3.26. After pressing, the juice was racked the next day and put to old barrels for a gentle cool ferment. The wine was then racked and sulphured to two old hogs heads for 12 months before bottling.
2021 Nebbiolo
Both the Syrah and the Nebbiolo fruit come from the Malakoff Vineyard in the Pyrenees, owned and farmed by Robert and Cameron John.
The Pyrenees being further inland, has a more continental climate with cooler nights along with warmer sunny days, the low humidity leads to low disease pressure but dryer conditions. The fruit is grown on a north-east facing slope of red pervious clay with quartz gravel and ironstone, giving the Shiraz and Nebbiolo off Malakoff a lovely long ripening period allowing development of physiological ripeness for flavour and tannin structure.
Winemaking:
1 tonne of fruit was picked on the 29th of April in perfect condition. The last month of weather before picking was sunny and mild allowing balanced ripening of tannins and flavours. Given how small the batch was, Kirilly borrowed two small fermenters from Matt at Bloodmoon to ferment half as whole bunches for a week before destemming, and the other half was destemmed as whole berries on the day of harvest. The two portions evolved very differently. The whole bunch portion had aromatics of kirsch cherries with a lighter palate, whereas the whole berry portion had a more subdued nose, but a rich and generous tannin driven palate. The two portions were pressed together and stayed in three old barrels until March 2022.
Tasting Notes:
“An attractive light cherry red colour, the nose is immediately of dried autumn leaves and fresh bailed hay underpinned by kirsch cherries and sweet spices. The palate is at first generous and savoury leading into sweet juicy ripe fruit with fine alabaster marble tannins to finish. I am relishing sharing this wine with fans of Nebbiolo and indeed fans of the famed Malakoff vineyard.” Kirilly Gordon, Bowerbird Wines
2021 Syrah
Both the Syrah and the Nebbiolo fruit come from the Malakoff Vineyard in the Pyrenees, owned and farmed by Robert and Cameron John.
The Pyrenees being further inland, has a more continental climate with cooler nights along with warmer sunny days, the low humidity leads to low disease pressure but dryer conditions. The fruit is grown on a north-east facing slope of red pervious clay with quartz gravel and ironstone, giving the Shiraz and Nebbiolo off Malakoff a lovely long ripening period allowing development of physiological ripeness for flavour and tannin structure.
Winemaking:
The fruit was picked on the 21st of March at 14.3 Baume with a selective harvester. The harvester picks the berries straight off the vine leaving behind any stalks or leaves or inferior quality berries. The berries remain whole for the most part which allows for the whole berry to ferment, a process Kirilly’s traditionally favoured, but without the stalks, which can add their own type of tannin when included in the ferment.
It spent 10 days on skins including 2 days of cold soak, before pressing to barrel with 25% new oak (each year Kirilly adds a new French, 36 months seasoned, medium toast barrel to her collection). The wine spent 12 months in barrel, was racked a few times and sulphured and then spent another year in bottle before being released.
Tasting Notes:
“Deep, bright ruby in colour, the nose is of dark red fruits - morello cherries and mulberries. The French oak is well integrated, adding lovely mocha, spicy roundness. The palate is soft and generous, medium bodied with fine glossy tannins making this a very approachable wine.” Kirilly Gordon, Bowerbird Wines