East is a luscious late harvest moscato grown at our Musk Creek Vineyard. The grapes are left to dehydrate and dimple on the vine in the Indian summer we often experience. This Moscato Rosa was picked at 2t/acre with a baumé of 17.15 and select picked so that there was none of the inevitable late season rot. It’s important to select only the finest grapes, without a trace of rot, to ensure the delicious cherry red colour. The titratable acidity was 6.9 giving us balance in the field and reducing pressure on the winemaking.
The grapes were simply whole bunch pressed in a long slow cycle with careful evaluation at the press tray. The yield was only 550 litres per ton because of the shrivelling, heavy seeds and thick skins. More juice was lost after settling when racking the clear juice because muscat or moscato tends to gel rather than settle. The solids phase of the juice makes very ugly wine so we leave it out despite its large volume. The juice was fermented slow and cold to 10% alcohol and then with great difficulty we slowly halted the fermentation with a deep long chill. Because of the tannin, careful preparation of the juice and cold temperatures, the wine clarified beautifully, effortlessly. Bottled at the winery August 28th 2024, capturing the spritz of fermentation.
