The Fried Chicken is made of the first fruit to come off of vines that we rehabilitated ourselves and so is a very special wine for us. Back in 2019 we had just enough time to begin rehabilitating 3 rows of Chenin Blanc so that we would have a little something-something for the 2021 vintage.

Like any good natural wine tragic, the Weirdos enjoy wines that have spent some time under a healthy covering of flor and a wine that speaks to their yearning to visit or talk about their visit to the Jura.

A unique wine dictated by circumstance. Rare, challenging and polarising, but ultimately rewarding many times over for those
prepared to invest time deciphering it.

It started as a tiny volume of organically managed fruit, picked on consecutive weekends in mid-January. Crushed to stainless and macerated on skins for 10 days all told. A batch so small we borrowed our mate John’s micro basket press, and still only half-filled it. Straight to stainless for the requisite 8-month élevage, it tasted delightful throughout, all zippy lemonade and crunch. The powerful native flor yeast at Swan Valley Wines had other designs, however. When we went to blend the tank we discovered it had developed a serious veil, and had changed character completely.

It had become an incredibly intense wine, the nose all bruised apple, caramel popcorn and nuttiness, complicated with a powerful peated whiskey note. The palate is a practice in contradiction, with lively green apple acidity and powerful chalky phenolics that combine to give the wine a powerful energy. Allowed to open over the course of an afternoon, the wine reveals a multitude of different faces, and provides endless pleasure.

Much like the Turbulent Juice this wine was racked and bottled without any additions.

– Local Weirdos