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Australia’s roll call for Aligoté makes for pretty short reading. There are small parcels in the Whitlands area and Margaret River (at Blind Corner), and then there’s the mother vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula, which supplied the cuttings for those two.
The wine is cropped from three north-facing rows of 35+-year-old vines rooted in the sandy grey loams of Tuerong and a handful of more recently planted rows from a site across the road. Barney’s Aligoté vines have large, soft leaves and a matte appearance, contrasting with the glossy shine often found on his Chardonnay leaves. The bunches are tight, the berries are round and plump, and there’s always a distinctive aniseed character to complement the saline and mineral highlights.
The grapes are harvested by hand and pressed as whole bunches to a single old 500-litre puncheon for fermentation, followed by nine months on the large, soft lees. What a wine! It’s beautifully balanced, buzzing with energy and tension, with a lovely nippy grip on the finish. Get in.