2020 Scorpo Bestia Pinot Grigio is based on the method my father Sebastian and his friends made white wine from the 1950s on. It was 100% lightly crushed and wile yeast fermented in concrete fermenters that he had built. This of course all occurred in the garage in Coburg, Melbourne. A true garagiste! After fermentation, the wine was basket pressed (which he built himself) and about 250 litres was made. Mostly it was a mixture of Malvasia with about 5% Waltham Cross. It was matured in old whiskey barrels for about 3 months and then hand bottled. In the seventies we started to source old French wine barrels. My father and his friends would meet most Saturdays for lunch, and play the card game 'bestia', meaning the beast. Most of all they met to drink each other's wines and try to all present that their wine was the superior.
Ripe grapes are harvested. 30% whole bunches with 70% destemmed fruit go into an open-top fermenter. It's given a five-day cold soak before indigenous-yeast fermentation. It was pressed after 11 days and aged for 12 months in neutral French oak barriques.
The hue is somewhere between burnt orange and a Mutabilis rose. Rich aromatics, spicy, refined and heady nose. Red ‘Sensation’ pear, oranges, Morello cherry. The palate is grippy with wonderful texture. Briny, spicy, intense and exotic. Savoury phenolics. Flavours of mandarin and orange jube, mixed with pears. Citrus pith and exotic spices accompany the long finish. - Paul Scorpo