The third stop of this short tour was at Cobaw Ridge. Although this winery has been around for over 30 years, I have not known it until now. They make natural wine, if you take organic farming, no fining and filtration and very limited sulphur at bottling as the definition.
The flagship wines are the Chardonnays. The 2021 Chardonnay is a refreshing wine, with grapefruit flavours, quite pithy. The wine goes through 100% malolactic fermentation, which Alan Cooper, the winemaker, says is a must to maintain stability in the wine, if no filtration is applied. This is a balanced wine, full of character (95 points). The 2018 Chardonnay, from a warmer year with higher yield, is a fuller wine, showing some development, but still with a good structure (92 points).
The 2021 Il Pinko is a Rosé made from 100% Shiraz. It was only kept three hours on skins. As a result, the colour is quite light, but this is deceiving. This is an energetic and powerful Rosé (92 points). The 2021 L'Altra is another Rosé with 15% Pinot Noir added. This is an easy drinking wine, not very distinctive, but quite delicious in the mouth, with fine acidity (90 points).
Finally, I was tasting Lagrein, a Northern Italian variety. I have only come across this once, at Tertini, where I tasted a much younger wine. The first one here was the 2006 Lagrein. The flavours are an attractive blend of mulberry, cherry liquor, and licorice. It is quite an acidic wine with medium dry tannins (92 points). The real highlight was the 2000 Lagrein, a more mellow and softer wine, it felt wise and balanced with some eucalypt and herbal flavours adding to the palate. It was drinking beautifully (95 points).
So, who says wines made in this style cannot age? I think the difference to, say, a number of natural wine makers in the Adelaide Hills is, that a bit of sulphur is applied and 100% malolactic fermentation. This clearly increases ageability.
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