Chalmers Project is a new initiative from Australia’s undisputed champions of wine diversity. Kim and Tennille Chalmers combine vineyard and winery experimentation with some of the most exciting Mediterranean grapes thriving on the family’s Heathcote and Mildura properties. They’ve variously played with soil type, altitude, picking dates, skin contact, wholebunch ferments and more across Moscato Giallo, Fiano, Greco, Negroamaro, Aglianico and Nero d’Avola. Please note that the micro-batch production means that only very limited quantities are available, so you might have to move swiftly to get your hands on some…
WINES
2015 Project Chalmers Dry Moscato Giallo FINED RRP $31
15 dozen bottles produced. A dry textural white made by open ferment on skins for nine days, pumped over regularly. Pressed off skins at about 2 Baumé and finished in stainless steel. The wine is not filtered and has been bottled in two halves: one fined and one unfined.
2015 Project Chalmers Dry Moscato Giallo UNFINED RRP $31
15 dozen bottles produced. Winemaking as above, but this this wine was not fined.
2015 Project Chalmers Fiano RRP $31
12 dozen bottles produced. Made simply in a stainless steel barrel with fruit from Chalmers’ Mildura vineyard. An example of the style and finesse possible with Fiano in sandy soil and warmer climates.
2015 Project Chalmers Greco RRP $31
15 dozen produced. 100% Heathcote fruit, crushed and left on skins for three days before pressing. Long, slow ferment in anaerobic conditions. Textural, quirky, with body and plenty of natural acid, too.
2015 Project Chalmers Negroamaro RRP $31
5 dozen produced.Pale in colour and medium-bodied. A fresh but vibrant example of one of the Chalmers’ favourite southern Italian red varieties from their Heathcote vineyard. Open ferment, into old barrel. Lunchtime red.
2015 Project Chalmers Aglianico MAGNUM RRP $62
50 magnums produced. From the Chalmers family’s prized top block at Heathcote. About 200kg of the most perfect bunches were sealed into 100L drums for nine weeks, after which the wine was pressed, amalgamated & resealed for a further seven months. Bottled in magnums in January 2016.
NERO PROJECT
After returning from a vintage in Occhipinti in Sicily, Tennille Chalmers was keen to explore in more detail the character of the family’s Nero d’Avola plantings. She made four wines following the same method to showcase the effects of terroir and picking date, in order to show the intricacies of this exciting variety.
2015 Project Chalmers Nero d’Avola Mildura RRP $31
20 dozen bottles produced. Sand and limestone soil, 70m elevation, harvest 16th February.
2015 Project Chalmers Nero d’Avola Bottom Block RRP $31
20 dozen bottles produced. Deep red Cambrian soil, 170m elevation, harvested 10th March.
2015 Project Chalmers Nero d’Avola Top Block Heathcote RRP $31
20 dozen bottles produced. Complex rocky Cambrian soil – basalt, jasper, dolerite, ironstone – at 220m elevation, harvested 10th March.
2015 Project Chalmers Nero d’Avola Top Block Late Heathcote RRP $31
20 dozen bottles produced. Complex rocky Cambrian soil – basalt, jasper, dolerite, ironstone – at 220m elevation, harvested 24th March.