2022 - Dope Peasant Juice - Vino da Tavola

Peasant Style Grenache 

Swan Valley

Zero additions

360 bottles made 

A wine made in collaboration with our good friends at Highs and Lows in celebration and veneration of Peasants. 

A wine for the farmers, the toilers, the working class, the grinders, the Peasants. A wine for vignerons - the rare breed of viticulture focussed winemakers who make their wines out in the field and only put the finishing touches on them in the winery. Etymologically it can be considered to be either a dope wine for normal peasants, or a normal wine for dope peasants - We like to think it's a little of both.

The second pick of Grenache off our little organically managed block in the Swan Valley. It comes from the middle five rows of the vineyard. Picked with friends and fellow Peasants on February 6th, an early pick, to balance between holding out in an attempt to achieve physiological ripeness, and protecting the suffering vines - who had been copping some serious summer rays over the latter part of the growing season.

Processed the next day at Swan Valley Wines, the fruit picked split between one ferment in big plastic Nally bin, and another in the 1000L Georgian Terracotta Qvevri, the baume just scraping in about 11B on both.

Allowed to ferment at ambient temperature (ie: topping out around 30C), plunged once a day to limit the extraction of the gripping phenolics the skins still retained.

Both Nally and Qvevri ferment combined together in the press after 6 days on skins, pressed to one 500L seasoned oak puncheon. This barrel was topped from ullage every month, the lees stirred once or twice to round out the palate weight given the low alcohol. Racked once a week from bottling which took place on August 28th with nary an addition in sight.


At the end of the day it's just immaculate grenache left to gestate in old oak for a couple of seasons. Savoury and chewy, a wine of real rusticity.

A table wine for drinking when your feudal master allows and perhaps the impetus you need to throw off those shackles, revolt, and farm your own destiny from now until eternity.