There’s a story behind this wine, our first foray into intentional carbonic maceration. A fellow winemaker, Tom Colman, pulled me aside after a long consumer tasting in Sydney and said, “Brash, you should pick some whole bunch Nero d’Avola and flood it with direct pressed Shiraz juice and let it ferment”. I was intrigued and it haunted me. Why was I the one to which he chose to speak these mysterious words?

Two years later in 2020 we gave it a go. This wine, the 2025, is made from grapes grown on our Omensetter Vnyd. Freshly picked, whole bunch Nero d’Avola grapes were engulfed with direct pressed Shiraz. We switched from Cabernet to shiraz this vintage and love the new result. All the Shiraz juice covered the Nero grapes and their stems, submerging the clusters completely. The idea is that the sugar in the Nero berries, starved of oxygen, will ferment inside their little berry bodies and create a lighter, slightly confectionary flavour profile. My trusty pal, Q Wine from Queensland, who worked harvest with me in 2020, said it smelled like ripple ice cream, which is boysenberry vanilla swirl, and we were off! And then there’s the great song “Ripple” by the Grateful Dead. And then there’s also the wine from the 70’s in the US called Ripple which was, well, meant for the youth of America, believe it or not. But perhaps it’s the idea of ripples themselves, waves of ideas forever radiating outwards…cause and effect into eternity… – Producers notes