Winery & Vintage Info
The story of Bass Phillip starts back in the early 1970s
when the first vineyard site, located 15 kilometres
south of Leongatha, was selected to plant vines based
climatic and topographical observations which when
combined with South Gippsland's moderating influences of the mountains to the north and ocean to the south, produces the perfect conditions for long slow ripening grapes.
Our other 7.5-hectare vineyard was then planted in 1990 primarily with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay but also some small plantings of Gewurztraminer and Nebbiolo, all on a north facing slope in Leongatha's hinterland, increasing our overall area of vines to just over 10 hectares.
Our wines reflect our vines and their terroir. which is enhanced by our close planted, low cropping, old vines with only the use of natural processes and sprays, no irrigation and meticulous canopy management, culminating to produce wines of depth, length and complexity.
Bunches are carefully sorted upon arrival at the winery
on a sorting table then conveyed to a state or the art incline de-stemmer. The whole berries are gently conveyed directly to open fermenters with an addition of 40 ppm SO2. A natural ferment starts usually within 4 days but hand plunging commences from the start until draining pressing. Usually between 10-1 days from harvest the wine is drained and the skins pressed gently and combined with the free run wine which is settled for a week or so before racking to barrel using gravity. Malo lactic occurs naturally in barrel and once complete the wine gets 60 ppm SO2.
Our Estate Pinot is a selection of the best barrels of our Leongatha vineyard of Which 22% were new this year. All barrels are lightly toasted and extra tight grain oak. Barrels are topped and checked regularly. Wine stays in barrel for 14 months, then it's simply gravity decanted off lees via a spigot inserted at the bottom of the barrel to a blending tank. No fining of any sort. or filtration before bottling in July 2022. A natural deposit may become present over time in the bottle.
