Old vine Ugni Blanc is one of the Barossa’s great, untapped resources, and after years of underwriting the Lola blend, since 2017 Pete Schell has finally given it its own house. This variety, known as Trebbiano in Italy, has been grown in the Barossa Valley since the 1850s — evidence enough of its suitability to grow in the local soils and local climate.
This textural white is sourced from a tiny single vineyard in Ebeneezer planted sometime in the early 1900s. Planted within the Cinsault vines are a hundred or so Ugni Blanc vines of the same age which Spinifex harvests prior to picking the Cinsault (for the Papillon blend). The fruit was hand-picked, destemmed and crushed and left on skins for 12 hours before pressing. Wild fermented and aged on lees in a seasoned French oak demi muid for nine months prior to bottling without filtration.