Empire of Dirt

When the time felt right to develop a range down under it made sense to look to the Yarra and in turn to the Mayer family. Speaking to Timo it didn’t take long to get him on board as he was looking for a project for his son Rivar to gets his teeth stuck into – Empire of Dirt was born. When it came to what varieties we should use we were drawn to the history and potential for CabernetSauvignonandSauvignonBlancintheYarra.ThinkMountMaryandColdstreamHills. Now, over to Rivar who seems to have inherited his father’s down-to-earth turn of phrase: ‘The Savvy comes from a vineyard next to us which the old man looks after. It was whole bunch pressed, with a third crushed and left overnight before pressing. We wanted to give the wine more varietal characters and texture. The wine had good acidity and didn't need any additions apart from a little sulphur. The Cab came from an old unirrigated vineyard . It was mostly de-stemmed and fermented with little extraction. A small percentage was kept whole bunch and blended in in afterwards, before resting in old oak. Again no additions, apart from a sprinkle of sulphur. Both wines are neither fined or filtered. Good S**t.’