Description
Wayward Child ~ Spirit of adventure & the journey of discovery.
Wayward Child wines are about exploring our vineyard and for alternative ways to achieve the best Yarra Valley wines. And they definitely add extra interest for visitors as we strive to become the best cellar door experience.
Wayward Child Bastion is our vinous equivalent of nose to tail eating. After harvesting, there are always some bunches left on the vines, usually stuck around the posts and in harder to access parts of the canopy. We hate seeing waste in any part of our business so picked these left-over bunches once everything else was off. Pinot gris, Pinot noir, Merlot and a touch of Cabernet Sauvignon were all harvested together and the resulting must had a potential alcohol of 18%! Not great for wine so what to do? Make a vin doux!
Alcoholic fermentation kicked off and we foot stomped the grapes to extract some tannin and colour. Once the wine had fermented to about 7% alcohol we fortified it with 78.5% grape spirit. This left the wine with 74g/L grape sugar and 17% alcohol. The wine was then aged in old oak barrels for 11 months.