2022 Schmolzer & Brown 'Grauburgunder' Skin Contact Pinot Gris

Place: King Valley, VIC

Variety: Pinot Gris

Farming: Sustainable

Tessa Brown and Jeremy Schmölzer are the husband-and-wife team thoughtfully farming in cool Beechworth. Their wines are characterful and honest expressions of their beautiful, isolated pocket of Victoria.

Grauburgunder is their red-drinking white: Pinot Gris, fermented on skins. A small batch wine from a 740m altitude site in Whitlands in the King Valley. The 2022 iteration of this wine is probably the most complete and complex version yet. Think orchard fruits - baked quince, pear flesh, hints of calvados and unripe strawberries and a wash of asian spices and alpine herbs. The palate is like a mirror world to Pinot Noir - the tannin and structure is similar yet the wine is more delicate and lingering.