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Tussie Mussie Vineyard Pinot Gris 2022
Pinot Gris like Pinot Noir are so distinguished by their site. Tussie Mussie Vineyard, formerly a flower farm, grows in the choccy red, iron rich soil of Merricks North. It’s a generous wine with a luscious stone fruit palate; honey, heavy bottomed pears, creamy classic Pinot Gris. The mud brick homestead and original rambling house gardens are sensitively maintained as a boutique retreat.
“Intensely flavoured with stone fruit, poached apple and pears drizzled with lemon honey and powdered ginger. Luscious on the palate but not weighty, it’s all about texture with creaminess throughout. The flavours linger long and the finish, too.”
– Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion August 2023
95/100 points, Gold Medal
LOOKS LIKE... Green and gold
SMELLS LIKE... Honey and wild flowers, stone fruit
DRINK WITH... Snapper, fennel, pumpkin or Gözleme
CELLAR UNTIL... Drink when fresh, within 3 years
Winery
Merricks North red volcanic soils, rich in iron, naturally create voluble Pinot Gris as sensual as the landscape.
Vintage 2022 was hand harvested 21st March and 1 st April. The Tussie Mussie Pinot Gris arrived at the winery as small glossy berries brimming with intense flavour, excited winemaking team. Whole bunch pressed and fully extracted on a extended press cycle, lots of squeezing not many turns. Settled and rough racked the following day, Tussie Mussie was fermented on some solids and left to mature unsulphured on lees in steel. Bottled after 9 months.
Tasting
The wine is a luscious golden liquid in the glass. The aroma of ripe orchard fruits, spice and honey is confirmed on the palate with the gentlest suggestion of sweetness. Richness and warmth are evident in the aroma and mouth feel. Honey, heavy bottomed pears, and spiced quince. The palate has an attractive mineral backbone from the volcanic soils (Flinders Volcano 40-48 million years ago), showing textured phenolics from the slow press cycle, creamy and generous. The vineyards’ joyful moniker, suggestive of its former existence as a rose & herb farm, is expressed by this hedonistic Pinot Gris. Inviting floral aromas exude the glass, swiftly accompanied by lemon peel and honeysuckle. Beautiful, ripe flavours of nectarine and a hint of spice guide the palate to a luxurious, lingering finish.
Despite all things voluptuous Tussie Mussie Pinot Gris is actually as dry or zero sugar as possible. The reason why premium Pinot Gris in Australia is often perceived as sweet is its comparative high level of dry extract which usually indicates a high level of unfermentable sugars.
Vineyard
Tussie Mussie Vineyard is located 1500 metres uphill from Quealy’s Winery along Bittern-Dromana Rd, Merricks North. The vineyard is a north-facing slope that captures sunshine, and because it is a central valley on the Peninsula is protected from excessive wind. The vineyard is planted in productive Red Ferrosols; deep red loam that you can sink your boots into that gradually transitions to a red clay. Before the vineyard, the property was a flower farm, hence the name remains.
Tussie Mussie is 3.5 acres each of Mornington Peninsula’s most impressive varieties – Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. The vineyard was planted in 2009 with 2.5 x 1 metre spacing on simpatico rootstock. It’s a young vineyard that has benefited from the Mornington Peninsula’s collective decades of experience. As with most of Mornington’s vineyards, grapes are grown without any irrigation, and in this case saving the water for Tussie Mussie gardens and wildlife.
Details
Picked – 21st march and 1st April