The focus is on traditional, hand-made artisanal boutique wine production – from the reception of the hand-picked grapes in whole bunches in small bins, through the process (as regards red wine) of frequent pigeage and pump-overs in small fermentation vats by terroir lot, to basket-pressing and maturation in 100% French oak barrels each selected for the individual wine/terroir. This is made possible by our commitment to producing simply the best possible premium boutique wines, regardless of commercial considerations. The best evidence is of course a first-hand visit to our winery during harvest!
The red wine grapes are destemmed and crushed on arrival and the must is pumped off into open top fermenters.
We generally allow the red grapes to cold soak for 24-48 hours after destemming/crushing, to allow full extraction of the beautiful deep, rich red colour which is so uniquely and quintessentially Barossa.
Thereafter we pursue a policy of minimal intervention and soft extraction, beginning with the fermentations. These are in small individual tanks allowing micro-vinification by individual vineyard site which lies at the core of the Maverick winemaking philosophy. Approximately 50% of our ferments are “Natural,” occurring spontaneously without innoculation by yeast culture, and lasting sometimes as little as 2 days. Generally all our red ferments are short so as not to over extract and to allow only the purest and most soft/elegant expression of our fruit in the wine – the hallmark of all Maverick wines. The fact that there are no chemicals from herbicides is of course also a factor, which allows Maverick wines to be easily distinguished from chemically-farmed wines in any tasting!
During the fermentation process, we conduct regular but short manual pigeage and pumpover in all our fermenters, to ensure that the cake is soaked and that the juice is regularly distributed as evenly as possible throughout the vat.
The red wine is then transferred to a stainless steel tank for separation of gross lees.
The red wine is then racked off to barrel where it remains for 12-24 months depending on its final product destination. One of the many things which makes Maverick so unique is our policy of keeping as much as possible of our red wine in small French oak barriques, right to the pre-blending tastings which occur as close as possible to bottling. This is wildly uneconomic, but allows us to track each wine not only by vineyard site but also by small oak vessel throughout its evolution, and allows us to make the optimum blending decisions between barrels. This in turn allows us (we hope!) to ensure that what goes into bottle is the very best it can be of that particular level of wine – over-delivery is critical at every stage of the wine-growing process.
Stainless steel is used for a major part of our Breechens and for some of the Twins components – indeed, our philosophy is that stainless allows optimum fruit expression and enhances the fresh fruit characteristics so important for everyday pouring wines, while at the same time allowing us to bring wines which are truly “Maverick” in origin and character to the wine lover at the best possible value.
