Fletcher
— Portfolio —
C20 LANGHE CHARDONNAY 2020
Bottle Shot
2020 saw the David pic the first Chardonnay fruit off the new home vineyard – Next to the station/converted winery in Barbaresco. 0.33 Hectares. This vineyard was planted in 2017. North facing, David reminds me it’s only good for white due to the cool site. He’s being trying to seek balance in this wine hence planting 3 different clones, all burgundy clones. This is first time these grapes will go into the Langhe Chardonnay, along with the vineyard he’s been purchasing fruit from for many years from a grower in Barbaresco.
David utilised several picking times for both his own.vineyard and with the grower, to balance the glycerol texture that Chardonnay from the Langhe can exude. This helped retain more natural acidity to offset this viscous natural footprint.
If you have had the pleasure to try the likes of Gaia & Rey, Rossj Bass or Cordero’s Elioro Chardonnay to name but a few you will know that Langhe can produce some superb expressions of this variety. For those of you who love some texture and softness in this variety you might just take a shine to this wine. 100% Chardonnay from the Barbaresco zone of the Langhe. Whole bunch pressed, and fermented spontaneously in barrel. Aged on lees for 10 months in 30% new, 70% old French oak, Burgundian coopered oak. Bottled without fining or filtration.
“It was the second year that we decided to pick the Chardonnay in two distinct picks. The first nice and early, to give the citrus aromas and palate zing. The second to add volume and depth to the palate and also to push the complexity up a level with stone fruits, melon and pear. As always we kept the oak integrated with no more than a third new” – David Fletcher
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
THE MINION NEBBIOLO 2021
VICTORIA | AUSTRALIA
Bottle Shot
Sourced from regions, Pyrenees & Yarra Valley. Always a blended wine, retaining the traditions of Piedmonte blending. 100% Nebbiolo. Open ferment, 100% destemmed. regions fermented separately, then blended. Old barrique. 14 months in wood.
LANGHE NEBBIOLO 2020
Bottle Shot
Previous releases were classified as Nebbiolo d’Alba. The change of appellation was necessary as David added for the first time in 2020 grapes from his younger Nebbiolo vines that he planted in 2016, just opposite the winery in Barbaresco. Italian law states if you are using grapes from inside Barbaresco or Barolo that are not being bottled as the DOCG equivalents the wine then becomes Langhe Nebbiolo if you are blending with other zones, in this case Roero.
The wine comes from 3 communes – Barbaresco, Scaparoni (close to Alba) and Monta in Roero. Langhe Nebbiolo can have up to 15% other grapes but David likes to use 100% Nebbiolo. As David expresses “It’s another way to teach someone about
Nebbiolo”.
100% destemmed. Open ferment, very little plunging, every 2 to 3 days. No post ferment soak. Old wood. 300ltr hogs head. Elevage for 12 months. It can in fact be aged in any way (ie wood or steel) but he likes to use wood as it helps with the natural oxidation/softening of tannins.
The bottle on the right hand side still shows the Nebbiolo d’Alba at the bottom but the new Langhe Nebbiolo carries the same label design.
BARBERA D’ASTI 2019
Bottle Shot
In 2019 David increased the whole-bunch component to 45%. David’s enjoying the style it’s bringing to the wines. Primary ferment in open fermenters for the Barbera. The wine is pressed off to old barriques where it stays for 8 months on lees. Bottling is done without fining or filtration and with very minimal sulphites added.
When David decided to make a Barbera, they knew it had to be from Asti, the prized home of the Barbera grape. This Barbera comes from three vineyards, two very close to each other but they vary hugely in age, about 20 years. The other vineyard is from an east facing site as opposed to the other two that face south, and is therefore a much cooler site. This wine is dense in colour and fruit like all good Barbera, and is highlighted by an amazing core acidity. It is the under their organic label and is marked and closed under a bees wax seal.
“For the Barbera, we are always chasing an elegant style as opposed to the classic Asti rich, ripe and woody style. This year we pushed the whole bunch level up to 45% to increase that line of carbonic maceration derived fruit/floral lift on the nose. The result is exactly where we want it, pure, clean elegant fruit on the nose and soft, slurpable but crunchy palate. Always in old wood to round off that acid and fruit”- David Fletcher
BARBARESCO ‘RECTA PETE’ 2019
Bottle Shot
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.
This wine is sourced from 100% Cru vineyards. Similar to the Burgundy model (but not exactly the same) by blending the three Cru’s David declassifies to a ‘simple’ Barbaresco DOCG. All the wine in this bottling is from Cru classified vineyards.
In 2019 it’s 50% from Roncaglie Cru, 30% from Starderi and 20% from Ronchi. It’s a small production, with David sourcing 0.3 hectares from Roncaglie (the whole Cru is 13 hct), 0.3 Hects from 2 different vineyards in Starderi and 0.2 hectares in Ronchi. 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.
The three Cru’s give of course differing characteristics to the overall wine. David explains that Roncaglie is picked significantly later than Starderi, South West facing, a little more shaded so longer hang time & more ferrous soils = Dark fruits, more masculine tannin. Starderi is South facing, ‘classic’ Barbaresco soil of sand, silt and clay but full of Calcium carbonate/Calcareous given the village was formerly the seabed. It offers elegance, spice and a red berry profile. Ronchi, a new addition in 2019 is East facing and in this vintage adds some ‘freshness’to the wine, a cooler vineyard.
BARBARESCO ‘STARDERI’ 2019
Bottle Shot
David sources from 3 vineyards in Staderi but has a soft spot for one of these, the most westerly on the East to West ridge of the Cru. Planted in 1985 this vineyard is south facing and Fletcher source just 0.1 hectare from this site that gets bottled under the Cru label.
Starderi is South facing, ‘classic’ Barbaresco soil of sand, silt and clay but full of Calcium carbonate/Calcareous given the village was formerly the seabed. It offers elegance, spice and a red berry profile.
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.
BARBARESCO ‘FASET’ 2019
2019 is the first year David has bottled Faset as a single Cru. 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 closet 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. 100% destemmed. Open ferment. Pressed to barrel. 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.
BARBARESCO ‘RONCAGLIE’ 2019
Another first in 2019. Roncaglie has been the main backbone along with Starderi of this estate Barbaresco Recta Pete. In 2019 David was granted the right to bottle under the Roncaglie cru. David explains that Roncaglie is picked significantly later than Starderi, South West facing, a little more shaded so longer hang time & more ferrous soils = Dark fruits, more masculine tannin. Roncaglie is one of the most significant Cru’s in Barbaresco, David considers the site very much a ‘Grand Cru’ of the village.
100% destemmed. Open ferment. Pressed to barrel. 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.
ACOBIA BITTER 2018
Bottle Shot
Acobia was started with a base wine, Certified organic Arneis, finished wine. David didn’t’ to use ‘poor wine’. He wrote the recipe for the bitter. Infuse the herbs into the alcohol – 20 to 30 days. Then you blend the ‘extract’ or now flavoured base alcohol (60 to 70% alcohol) into the wine. 21% ABV.
“So the Acobia is a Small Batch Bitter. It is composed of 13 herbs and fruits, that are infused into an organic base wine. It’s quite unusual for a bitter to contain wine, but what it does is give more florals to the nose and length to the palate. It’s almost impossible to describe all the individual things you taste in the Bitter because it’s a complex mesh of so many. You’ll definitely get citrus and cherry, but there are also herbs that meld secretly into the nose and push onto the palate, finishing with a bitter that lies somewhere between Aperol and Campari….”- David Fletcher