COTERIE’S AUSTRALIAN COLLECTION
1st February 2021
Coterie Wine Collection focuses on offering its on and off trade partners wines from small, family-owned brands from Australia, Northern Italy, and Eastern France. In this post we would like to introduce our Australian brands.
SOUMAH, Yarra Valley
SOUMAH is located down a county lane, in the dress circle of the Warramate foothills of Gruyere. It is from here the Butcher family set out to make wine with the charm of Northern Italy but the provenance of the majestic Yarra Valley.
SOUMAH’s Hexham Vineyard is approximately 50 acres in size: about 1,000 meters long and 600 meters wide. The vineyard’s farming philosophy is best described as ‘supervised control’. The French call it lutte raisonnée or ‘reasoned fight’. The basis for this philosophy is to reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides as these will eventually degrade the soil and make a weaker vine. You can learn more about SOUMAH’s commitment to sustainable viticulture here.
SOUMAH’s varietal selection is based on meticulous research into the vineyard’s terroir and clonal suitability for the area. This research brought SOUMAH to varieties you would expect to find in the Yarra Valley, such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, as well as Northern Italian varieties and styles including Brachetto, Nebbiolo, Marzemino, Savarro and Pinot Grigio. SOUMAH endeavours to search for native Northern Italian vines to plant at their Hexham Vineyard to continue the quest to build a little bit of Italy in the Yarra Valley.
This kind of attention to detail had put SOUMAH wines on the same level as some of the greatest wines in the World. Most recently SOUMAH’s 2018 Equilibrio Chardonnay received ‘Best in Show’ (97 points) at the 2020 Decanter World Wine Award, the world’s largest and most influential wine competition. In 2020 56 countries submitted 16,518 wines for judging and were tasted by 116 (socially distanced!) top wine experts including Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers. Of the wines tasted, only 50 received the highly sought ‘Best in Show’ accolade, six of these were Australian and SOUMAH 2018 Equilibrio Chardonnay is one of those!
We would love to show you some of SOUMAH’s wines! Feel free to reach out to you regular Sales Manager and set up an appointment. If you do not have one yet, please reach out to us via details in our Contact page and one of our Sales Managers will get back to you as soon as possible.
Red Edge, Heathcote
Red Edge winery is located in Heathcote, Victoria, where the climate is continental; warm to hot and generally (very) dry summers. Planted in 1971 — and celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2021 — the original two hectares of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon vines grow on a strip of 500-million-year-old Cambrian soil, some of the oldest earth on the face of the planet! The soil is glorious: vibrantly red, deep, free-draining, mineral rich, and eminently favourable to the vine, particularly Shiraz. Further plantings on adjacent blocks have expanded to 14 hectares of other classic European varieties. There is no irrigation here, therefore they rely solely on rain. It is an environmental way to farm and yields result in more intense flavours. The vineyards are hand pruned and handpicked, and the wines handmade with minimal intervention on site.
Owner and operator Peter Dredge has been at the helm of Red Edge since 1994 and now partners with son Will. Their winemaking philosophy is traditional, making the most of the ancient terroir and building on their techniques to produce premium wines from a single vineyard that equal the best of their type in the world.
Red Edge’s most iconic wine is Block 71 Shiraz. Planted in 1971 by Vern Viertmann, an erudite wine and soil expert, this two-acre block is Heathcote’s oldest remaining vineyard. Located on a perfectly drained north-easterly orientated slope, 71 Block is at the southernmost end of the legendary 500-million-year-old Cambrian strip. Never irrigated, the battle to survive has compelled roots deep into the ancient soil, in search of lifegiving subterranean moisture. Despite nearby bushfires and severe droughts, their gnarly and tortuous form is testimony to their arduous struggle. What is produced is the essence of Heathcote’s Shiraz; structured and powerful, dark, and brooding. All that is required is gentle coaxing to release 500 million years of flavour and to retain the essential character, the inherent terroir. Only 100 or so dozen are carefully nurtured each year, spending two years in the best French Troncais oak barriques, before bottling without fining or filtration. With careful cellaring, Red Edge Block 71 Shiraz will reward for 20 years.
We would love to show you some of Red Edge’s wines! Feel free to reach out to you regular Sales Manager and set up an appointment. If you do not have one yet, please reach out to us via details in our Contact page and one of our Sales Managers will get back to you as soon as possible.
To learn about our Northern Italian brands please read our other post called “Coterie’s Northern Italian Collection”.
Dmitri LAZARIUC
General Manager
Coterie Wine Collection