It’s back. The unique Chalmers Project, brought to you by Australia’s undisputed champions of wine diversity, is now in its second year.
Kim and Tennille Chalmers, together with winemaker Bart van Olphen, combine vineyard and winery experimentation with some of the most exciting Italian grapes thriving on the family’s Heathcote and Mildura properties.
This year’s brief has been to show these varieties, chosen by Chalmers for their outstanding potential, in their naked glory – super-simple small-batch winemaking to express the essence of the variety in these sites.
Chalmers Project 2016 is in 2 sub brackets – First set are made from North-Eastern Italian varieties, a deviation from the general Mediterranean theme, and a new development at the Heathcote site following promising results from the early #bucketwine vinifications. Second set are four different clones of the one grape variety, grown and made exactly the same, side by side so only the clonal differences are evident in the wines.
2016 CHALMERS PROJECT Nosiola Heathcote RRP $31.00
A rare white variety from Trentino in the Dolomite Mountains in northern Italy and traditionally used for Vin Santo Trentino DOC dessert wine. Nosiola has recently become more famous because of Elisabetta Foradori’s table wine versions. Imported by Chalmers in 1998 and first made into wine in Australia as a #bucketwine out of Mildura in 2013 then planted in Heathcote in 2014. Chalmers are the only Nosiola growers in Australia.
2016 CHALMERS PROJECT Grecanico Heathcote RRP $31.00
Grecanico is the Sicilian synonym for Garganega which is the main variety in the Soave wines of the Veneto. Chalmers chose to use the Sicilian name fro this wine as their vineyard conditions are more similar to Sicily and so they thought perhaps the wine might express more like a Southern Italian than a northern.
2016 CHALMERS PROJECT Malvasia Istriana Heathcote RRP $31.00
There are multitudes of Malvasia varieties around Europe, this one hails from Friuli and Croatia and is generally considered one of the best quality Malvasia varieties. This intriguing grape been on the Chalmers radar since 2005 when they made their first wine from it but this is the first from the Heathcote site.
2016 CHALMERS PROJECT Refosco Rosato Heathcote RRP $31.00
Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso is a mouthful. It’s the name of a particular variety of Refosco grown in Friuli and Slovenia which has red stems or peduncles. Chalmers discovered through #bucketwine trials that it’s natural high acidity and late ripening make it a good choice for warmer sites. It’s certainly made itself at home in Heathcote.2016 CHALMERS PROJECT Pavana Mildura MAGNUM RRP $62.00
Perhaps the rarest grape in the Chalmers collection. Bart fell in love with it in the vineyard, Kim and Tennille recently went in search of it’s origins in Veneto and Trentino in Italy. What an exotic and elusive grape! A relative of Schiava, making highly perfumed, light red wine. Chalmers are one of only a handful of growers worldwide.
2016 CHALMERS PROJECT Schioppettino No-Malo Heathcote RRP $31.00
Another Friuli native, this time from the narrow valley region of Prepotto which has unusually rare red soils. When Kim and Tennille met viticulturists and makers of Schioppettino in Friuli last year they showed photos of the Heathcote site and these local experts proclaimed it to be perfect Schioppettino country. Showing delicious gingery spice and bright purple fruit early on in it’s life Chalmers decided to bottle half the parcel of wine pre-malolactic fermentation to retain piquant freshness.
2016 CHALMERS PROJECT Schioppettino Malo Heathcote RRP $31.00
The second half of the Schioppettino lot was allowed to go through malo but bottled very soon after. In a winemaking culture where malolactic fermentation of reds is a given, the Chalmers girls (who don’t mind a bit of acidity in a wine…) decided it would be a grand idea to put a malo’d and non-malo’d wine in front of people and ask the question why we do this as a matter of course?
AGLIANICO PROJECT
The 2016 ‘under the microscope’ project centred upon Aglianico, the high acid, late-ripening black grape most noted for its expressions in Campania and Basilicata in southern Italy. These are the regions that give the famous wines of Taurasi and Vulture.
The Chalmers team took two different Taurasi clones and two from Vulture, grown side by side in exactly the same way, picked them on the same day and vinified them in identical fashion. The result – four unique wines all made from the exact same grape variety, just different clones – is a great example of how grapevine clones really make a difference. They’re not just winemaker buzzwords.
2016 CHALMERS PROJECT Aglianico Vulture MAT2 Mildura RRP $31.00
2016 CHALMERS PROJECT Aglianico Vulture VCR11 Mildura RRP $31.00
2016 CHALMERS PROJECT Aglianico Taurasi MAT3 Mildura RRP $31.00
2016 CHALMERS PROJECT Aglianico Taurasi VCR23 Mildura RRP $31.00
