Hot off the Press... Wangolina Station 2008 Sauvignon Blanc is one of South Australia’s Hottest 100 Wines


The Adelaide Review’s Hot 100 South Australian wines were released on Thursday October 2nd. The Hot 100 is now in its second year and is becoming the definitive collection of South Australia’s most exciting wines. The Hot 100 is put together by Nick Stock, John Duval and the winner of the previous year’s top wine which for 2007 was Stephen Pannell. Wangolina Station 2008 Sauvignon Blanc was listed in the top 100 one of only three Sauvignon Blancs which included the very highly esteemed Paracombe and Wicks Estate from the Adelaide Hills. The Wangolina Station 2008 Sauvignon Blanc was also included in the Hot Dozen which is available from East End Cellars, The Ed Cellars, Victory Hotel, Wellington EU Cellars and the National Wine Centre. Priced at $240 it’s a great deal. Check out the Adelaide Review website for further information.

Vintage 2008

What a vintage...I am sure that the news has got around about the difficulties of the vintage. However 2008 has been a magnificent for Wangolina Station. We can’t be any happier with the wines from the vintage.
We have been known to moan a little about the “gentle sea breezes” of the Mount Benson wine Regions however I think this vintage our chilly winds really paid off. The cool afternoon breezes ensured that while temperatures soared in many other wine regions, Mount Benson remained cooler.

This was our first vintage processing at Bird in Hand in the Adelaide Hills. The fruit came in hard and fast and we were thankful that our fruit came in with such great quality. Working with Kim Milne MW was really interesting and it was great for me to work with someone of such experience as I felt I had confidence in what we were doing and as a consequence we have the best set of wines we have ever produced and some wines with a little difference. For a start we have a 2008 Cabernet which will be a great follow up to the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon that has just been released. The 2008 however was given some post fermentation maceration on skins giving it a really great tannin structure. The 2008 Semillon is a big partially barrel fermented wine, which I am really excited about. The wine is still a vibrant Semillon just with a touch more complexity and oomph which has been achieved through the barrels fermentation, lees stirring and the use of different yeast including some wild yeast. The 2008 Sauvignon Blanc and the 2008 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc are two outstanding wines and I am so excited to have these out in bottle by July. The 08 Savvy is vibrant and fresh with a great tropical fruit nose with punchy green edges. The 08 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc is zesty yet mouth-filling with great citrus and grassy flavours.

These wines are great but have come with a lot of work. I have clocked up a few vintages in my short time winemaking and Dad and I have never worked as hard or as long as I have this vintage and I hope that you will all be able to enjoy the wines as appreciated the effort that goes into them. Just a quick finishing note. I want to take the opportunity of the newsletter to thank Dad for the effort that he put in this vintage, with me in the Adelaide Hills, Dad was the man about the vineyard tasting the fruit and reporting back, organising the harvester, loading the bins onto the truck and seeing the fruit off to the Hills. We couldn’t have done it without him and it was a hard job really well done...good one Dad.