Hoddles Creek Estate SKINS Pinot Gris 2021 (500ml)

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"The 'SKINS' project was initiated back in 2012 when I did a harvest at Passopisciaro on Mt Etna in Sicily. Back then with Pinot Gris, I would have put it in the same category as Sauvignon Blanc. Being quite boring to grow, simple to make and not a wine I would want to drink. Then came that moment on Etna, where the belief is that some varieties the flavour is in the skins and not in the pulp. With Pinot Gris being a shade lighter than Pinot Noir in colour, why didn't we use the skins to get some flavour that the variety was desperately lacking?

For the 2021 vintage, it was a delight making this wine. A cooler season, meant we could keep the Gris out in the vineyard longer without the risk of sunburn or excess alcohol. Having the fruit hang longer, gives you better tannins. When a wine is fermented on skins, it's the type of tannin that influences how you treat it during fermentation. A cool long season results in fine tannin, as they reach a greater level of phenolic ripeness."  Hoddles Creek

Expert reviews

"It's 500ml bottle and Pinot Gris left on skins for 12 days. Quite often, it's the most fastidious winemakers that make the best 'orange' wines. I don't know if CM was leaving the review of this to me, though I'm kind of glad he did. Either way, I will be smashing this later today for knock offs.

Spicy, musky, perfumed, but with a sort of wet clay bass that's just so appealing. There's brown pear and cherry, ripe strawberry, raw almonds. It's fresh, fleshy, with a suede-like tannin texture, all savoury yet succulent, cool acidity, and again that juicy brown pear and spiced strawberry finish of fine length and emery tannin grip. Wonderful. Knocked it out of the park. More like this from Hoddles Creek, please. Drink: 2021-2025+."  Gary Walsh, The Wine Front - 95 points

"100% pinot gris, fermented on skins for 14 days before it was pressed to barrel. A bright, medium-deep, amber terracotta. Complex with pear skin, red currants, savoury fennel-seed notes and a little Turkish delight. Equally good on the palate, this delicious non-binary wine is textured and saline and the digestif-like grippy tannins are begging for a plate of charcuterie to accompany it. 500ml bottle. Drink by 2024."  Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion – 95 points and Special Value Wine  ★ 

"I LOVE the SKINS wine, like an exotic, fresh amaro style, Campari meets alpine herbs with more going on. Firm, firm tannins but so sleek and fine boned too. Really outstanding. Like the AWRI had a crack at Lamoresca's Rosato, or something like that – very pure and very clean. Wildly delicious."  Mike Bennie, The Wine Front - 94/95 points

Awards

Special Value Wine – Halliday Wine Companion  ★ 

Franco D'Anna

In 1960 Tony and Bruno D'Anna purchased their future vineyard in the upper reaches of the Yarra Valley at Hoddles Creek, chosen due to the presence of a small creek which provided a natural water supply. Ironically the property was bought completely without vineyards in mind – merely to grow vegetables and run some cattle – and well before the potential of the Yarra Valley as a wine region had re-emerged after a long hiatus. 

It was not until the nineties, when interest in small wineries exploded around the country, that the D'Annas made the logical leap to plant vines at Hoddles Creek. Mario Marson, who was viticulturalist and winemaker at Yarra icon Mount Mary, assisted in the planting of traditional varieties such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with the surprise addition of Pinot Blanc, which has turned out to be one of the star wines.  With their now highly successful Boccacio Cellars wine business behind them, all the pieces were in place to return to serious winemaking and again follow in the steps of their forefathers. 

For Tony's son, Franco D'Anna, the path into the family business was almost a foregone conclusion. On finishing a commerce degree at the University of Melbourne he moved straight into a buying role for Boccacio Cellars but never quite settled. "I did this for a few years but never loved it. I went out to the vineyard to help out after planting and never left. I loved being outside, not enclosed within four walls and working flexible hours. On the vineyard I'll start work at 5am and then go play golf in the afternoon. What's not to love about being a farmer?" 

But Franco still lacked the technical knowledge and he knew it. So Franco went back to university – this time studying Applied Wine Science – which was followed by vintages with James Halliday at Coldstream Hills as well as overseas in Burgundy, Sicily and Piedmont. What those experiences have given him, combined with a lifetime surrounded by wine, is a unique take on classic Yarra Valley styles which centers on fruit quality. "Without good fruit it's impossible to make good wine. I have four staff members, and we spend 90 percent of our time in the vineyard." 

Winemaking is also relatively natural and in true Italian style concentrates as much on mouthfeel and structure as the more traditional Australian flavour-oriented wines. "We are lucky enough to grow grapes in an area where additions aren't really necessary. We don't add acid, enzymes, filter so there isn't much manipulation in the winery." And what stands out is that these winemaking philosophies are imprinted on each and every wine under the Hoddles Creek and Wickham Road labels which are unique, characterful and savoury expressions of the modern Yarra style. They are also delicious and generally made to age.

The above text was taken from an article by Angus Hughson published in Winepilot

About the winery

Hoddles Creek Estate was established in 1997 when the D'Anna family decided to establish a vineyard on the property that has been in the family since 1960. The vineyard sits astride Gembrook Road and adjacent to Hoddles Creek. Its steeply sloping blocks prohibit mechanical harvesting, with both vineyards being hand pruned and harvested.

Initially, 8 hectares of pinot noir and chardonnay were planted to the steepest slopes on the vineyard. More pinot noir and chardonnay, plus some pinot blanc followed in 2001, with cabernet sauvignon, pinot gris and sauvignon blanc coming later still. Franco, whose twin brother, Anthony, takes the reins at the store and for their prolific wine importing arm, Mondo Imports, first worked onsite in 1998, and it skewed him away from a career employing his commerce degree (Melbourne University) to retraining as a viticulturist at Charles Sturt.

The first commercial vintage at Hoddles Creek was in 2003, in their just-completed bespoke winery. All the wines, which are single vineyard, estate grown, are made in the 300 tonne winery. The split-level winery has a barrel store located three meters underground. Mario Marson (ex-Mount Mary, now Vinea Marson) steadied the course in the early days, but it was not long before Franco was in full charge, with the mandate to make the best wines he possibly could.

Hoddles Creek produce two tiers of wine, their Estate range and their flagship '1er' (or Premier Cru) range with fruit from certain blocks that excel year after year. Along with the established range, Franco has started bottling single block wines as he starts to see distinct micro-site variation with the vines hitting meaningful maturity. In the vanguard of these bottlings is a chardonnay from the coolest, most elevated and steepest blocks, 'Syberia'.

Hoddles Creek's mission is to produce terroir driven Yarra Valley wines of the highest possible quality sourced from impeccably farmed old vines with a focus on balance, complexity, concentration and ageability. They also lay a serious claim to being one of the best value producers in Australia.

In addition to the wines of their Yarra Valley vineyard, Hoddles Creek also produce an entry level range under the Wickhams Road label. Fruit is sourced from vineyards in Gippsland, Yarra Valley, King Valley and Yea. Hoddles Creek have become as well known for their dazzlingly economical Wickhams Road range as for their premium bottlings, as they are perennially the best-value chardonnay and pinot noir in the market.

Sections of the above text are taken from an article on Franco d'Anna that appeared in Young Gun of Wine