Fletcher
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LANGHE CHARDONNAY 2023
Bottle Shot
In the initial vintages the Chardonnay has been predominantly sourced from a 15 to 20 year old vineyard planted in the Cars vineyard within Barbaresco from a grower. Soils here are from an old sea bed, high calcareous, white soils. But David notes that it’s the aspects of the respective sites that play a key part. This vineyard is North facing, so the most coolest exposition.
Now the wine is a composition of this vineyard and David’s own plantings next to the winery, also North facing. The clonal selection at David’s own vineyard he chose specifically based on natural acidity more than anything else, fighting what he believes are the natural glycerol’s and fatness that can creep into whites from this region. He planted Burgundy clones here.
“On winemaking level, the Chardonnay is whole bunch pressed, no sulphur, oxidative handling going through to the barrels. Fermented in wood. It’s about 30% new French oak every year and the rest is varying ages, left on lees for 9 months.” – David
21 days on skins – Vino Bianco, could be Langhe Bianco but due to orange colour and filtration wouldn’t be classified. Pressed off to old wood, finish ferments. Goes through malo, as little as sulphur as possible at bottling.
“Arcato, this will always be the same recipe 75% arneis crushed and destemmed with 25% Moscato whole bunch. This wine is always influenced by the skin contact that gives texture to the palate, spice to the nose and an orange hue to the colour but what we are really seeing by maintaining the same recipe is the differences between vintages too. This year’s Arcato (officially 2020, but it would be illegal in Italy to print it on the label”- David Fletcher
MINION NEBBIOLO 2023
VICTORIA | AUSTRALIA
Bottle Shot
100% from Nebbiolo from the Yarra Valley. In previous vintages it was a blend between Yarra Valley and Pyrenees.
“I feel like Yarra Valley you’re getting good acidity, structure and and an elegant Nebbiolo so it just works better.” – David
Open ferment, 100% destemmed then into old barrique. 14 months in wood. David’s mentioned The winemaking here is exactly the same process as the one David uses in his Langhe Nebbiolo and Barbaresco in terms of ferment to barrel.
LANGHE NEBBIOLO DOC 2023
Bottle Shot
100% Nebbiolo from two different zones. Barbaresco & Alba. 100% destemmed. Open ferment, very little plunging, every 2 to 3 days. No post ferment soak. Old wood. 300ltr hogs head. Elevage for 12 to 14 months.
Why the change Nebbiolo d’Alba to Langhe?
“The Langhe Nebbiolo has evolved a little bit from what it was originally. It used to be 100% Roero fruit and called Nebbiolo d’Alba because that’s the zoning there. The past few years I’ve been incorporating/blending with fruit from young Barbaresco vineyards that’s essentially changed the name to Langhe Nebbiolo because you can’t call it Nebbiolo d’Alba if you’re getting fruit in the Barbaresco zone” – David Fletcher
Winemaking + blend of zones
“The differing parcels go into open top fermenters that post ferment go to old wood for between 12 and 14 months aging. This vintage is now sourced 100% from the Barbaresco and Alba regions. It is 50% from our vineyards and 50% from two growers we work closely with based in Roncagliette (Barbaresco) and Serragrilli (Neive)” – David Fletcher
“This is a lovely wine. Red cherry, liquorice, a dried rose perfume, a smattering of dried herb and orange peel. It’s medium-bodied, fresh and lively, a light stony/sandy grip to tannin, a juicy strawberry and cherry flavour, a light blood orange flavour on a spicy finish of excellent length. So nicely done, and so good to drink. Recommended.” – 93 pts – Gary Walsh – Wine Front
BARBARESCO ‘RECTA PETE’ DOCG 2022
Bottle Shot
Four Cru’s go into the composition of the Recta Pete: Faset (40%), Ca’ Grossa (30%), Serragrilli (20%) and Ronchi (10%).
Recta Pete means ‘shoot straight’, a nod to David’s Scottish family’s heritage as former arrow makers and his original vision of making Barbaresco.
100% destemmed. Open ferment, No post ferment soak. Elevage in old oak, over 10 years old, 300ltr barrels. Barbaresco can only be released on the 3rd January following harvest, giving the wine approx. 27 months total aging. David ages his wines for 24 months in barrel (legally it only needs be 12 as a minimum) then 3 months in bottle.
“Cherry, almond, liquorice and aniseed, a dusting of baking spice. It’s medium to full-bodied, red fruits with a nice crunch to acidity, tannin has a gently dusty and peppery profile, the perfume is present, and the wine, despite the warm vintage, has a cool and pleasing ‘mineral’ character to it. Finish is crisp and long, with some orange peel bite to close. Excellent.” – 94 pts – Gary Walsh – Wine Front
BARBARESCO ‘FASET’ DOCG 2022
Bottle Shot
David describes Faset has an ‘unparalleled richness’, a trait shared due to the similar soils with Asili, Rabaja and Rio Sordo. Perhaps easier to understand is that it’s the closest wine in David’s bottlings to Barolo in style. In the review tasting of the three wines this Cru definitely has the most fruit and density to the wine, highly aromatic, so much classic tar and roses in this wine.
“Faset is on the same soil as Roncaglie but is just slightly cooler, always kind of picked a little bit after Roncaglie. So if I said is the Faset has the densest biggest structure of the Cru’s I make, more Barolo than Barbaresco.” – David
100% destemmed. Open fermented, no post ferment soak. Elevage in season 300 litres barrels. Barbaresco can only be released on the 1st of January on the third year after harvest, giving the wine approx. 27 months total aging. David ages his Barbaresco for 24 months in barrel (legally it only needs be 9 as a minimum) then 3 months in bottle.
“…Raspberry and strawberry, ginger and spice, a floral almost honeyed top note, maybe lavender and dried roses. It’s medium-bodied, a distinct stony feel to tannin, sandstone and hazelnut skin, some bergamot perfume too, a fine crunch to acidity, a twist of amaro bitterness and liquorice root, with a cool ‘minerally’ finish of excellent length. This has tension and perfume, even though it’s from a very warm vintage. Excellent.” – 95 pts – Gary Walsh – Wine Front
BARBARESCO ‘RONCHI’ DOCG 2022
Bottle Shot
“We have been working with Ronchi fruit since 2020, using it as a valuable blending component in the ‘Recta Pete’ Barbaresco (our entry level). This is how we discover new cru vineyards worthy of singe vineyard labels. Since 2020 we have been monitoring the quality and making improvements in the vineyard so as to reach a level where we can finally present it as a single vineyard wine. In 2022 we have achieved that quality level. It’s an east facing block, receiving only morning sun and it performed beautifully in this vintage.” – David
100% destemmed. Open fermented, no post ferment soak. Elevage in season 300 litres barrels. Barbaresco can only be released on the 1st of January on the third year after harvest, giving the wine approx. 27 months total aging. David ages his Barbaresco for 24 months in barrel (legally it only needs be 9 as a minimum) then 3 months in bottle.
“…Cherry and raspberry, hazelnut and roast peanuts, spice, dried flowers. It’s nutty and red fruited, a pumice stone grip to tannin, quite some flesh and power, some orange juice tang to acidity, slightly broad, but pulls itself in nicely on a finish of good length. Needs some time.” – 93 pts – Gary Walsh – Wine Front
CANTINA DELLA STAZIONE DOLCETTO D’ALBA DOC 2023
Bottle Shot
Sourced from a low-cropping, 65 years old vineyard in Treiso, owned by Paolo Rivetti. The vineyard sits at 170 metres of altitude, on bony white calcareous soils with a touch of ferrous clay.
The grapes are hand picked early in the cool morning, then brought to La Stazione. 100% open fermented, with soft regular hand plunging to achieve low, soft extraction. No temperature control. The juice sits with the skins and it builds up its steam and its temperature and its fermentation strength over many days. Only native yeasts are used so the fermentation can last anywhere from two to three weeks. 9 months in 300 litres seasoned barrels. Bottles unlined and unfiltered.
“I am still using barrels which is, I guess, getting unique. But the fact is my quantities are so small and the way I do my picking in vineyards is derived around tasting the fruit and doing subsections so keeping the ferment separate, keeping the aging separate. So I have batches of wine that comes 300 liters that one barrel and I can’t see the benefit of making early decisions to blend these things up and throw them in a big Botti. So just for me right now I will continue doing what is working and the old barrels are working for me on my size and my scale. The barrels that I’m buying and 10 year old barrels before I used them.” – David
CANTINA DELLA STAZIONE BARBERA D’ASTI DOCG 2023
Bottle Shot
Sourced from three small plots David used to work with until 2021, year when he purchased the Bricco Capre vineyard in San Rocco Seno d’Elvio. In 2023 this vineyard was tremendously hit by hail so David had to rely on his historical sources to produce Barbera and Dolcetto. The location is Castagnole Delle Lanze, in the province of Asti (hence the appellation change to Asti DOCG), North-East of Barbaresco. Farmed organically on three different exposures at higher altitudes on white calcareous clay soils.
The fruit is hand picked, open fermented with 50% left as whole bunch and only hand plunged. Pressed to 300 litres seasoned oak barrels for 9 months. Bottled unlined and unfiltered.
“My decision to do whole bunch is because Barbera can really easily get blown out, it ripens super fast. In factit’s one of the earliest reds to come in for our area but it’s the fastest ripening in terms of sugar accumulation. It will race to 15-16% alcohol before you know it and to temper that I spend a lot of time in the vineyard trying to focus on that picking time, which is difficult because it’s the other thing about Barbera it’s got a huge amount of acidity. So you’ve got to find that kind of balance between the sugar accumulation and the dropping of the acid as the maturation goes on.” – David