Fratelli Alessandria Barbera D’Alba 2019 Italy

Eldorado Road Quasimodo 2018

60% Nero d’Avola / 24% Shiraz / 16% Durif

To understand Quasimodo you must venture beyond the surface and explore the inner soul. As individual varietal wines they can struggle for love but when blended together they can sing, shine and bring harmony.

Quasimodo is a unique Australian blend of Nero d’Avola, Durif & Shiraz sourced from the regions of Eldorado and Rutherglen and in 2018 Glenrowan. It’s an amalgam of flavour and colour culminating in a complex rewarding wine.

The make of this blend changes year on year depending on the season with our desire to create an affable drink that has layers of complexity built in through the unique varieties and vineyards.

In 2018 the Nero d’Avola came from our home vineyard at Eldorado planted on rare decomposed red granite soils, washed down from the Beechworth Plateau by the meandering Ready Creek that runs through the farm. Wine from 3 different Nero ferments made its way into this years blend, picked at different ripeness, all fermented wild and one containing 20% whole bunch. Basket pressed and seasoned for 16 months in aged French Oak Puncheons on gross lees.

The Shiraz in 2018 comes from 2 vineyards with incredible pedigree. Unusually in 2018 70% of the Shiraz fruit came from the ancient dry land 1890’s planted “Dulcies” vineyard in Glenrowan as none of our flagship “Perseverance” Shiraz was made in 2018. The second parcel is sourced from the Mt Pilot Estate Vineyard perched in the Eldorado hills amongst the boulders of an ancient granite outcrop. This vineyard is painfully low yielding and produces grapes of incredible concentration and flavor, we pick at around 13 baume to retain freshness. Wine made from these grapes is consistently at the pointy end of our pre blending classification tasting and would make an excellent stand alone wine. Both parcels basket pressed and seasoned for 16 months in aged French Oak Puncheons on gross lees.

As per usual the Durif for Quasimodo is sourced from a tried and tested mature Rutherglen vineyard, picked a little riper at a baume of around 14-14.5. We are very conscious not to over extract the fruit, so as with all our reds it was hand plunged once daily and gently basket pressed. Quasimodo, like all our reds, is unfined and lightly filtered. Bottled July, 2020.