Since 1912 the Osborn family have grown grapes and made wine in the picturesque surrounds of McLaren Vale. Today, fourth generation family member Chester Osborn is at the winemaking helm, making distinctive wines using traditional methods in the winery and the vineyard.
All d’Arenberg estate owned and leased vineyards are ACO Certified for organic and biodynamic processes.
This natural and environmentally friendly philosophy encourages strong root systems that penetrate the soil, resulting in lively tannin structures, soil characters and fine minerality. These practices also ensure that yields are kept low with concentrated flavours and excellent natural acidity.
From entry level to iconic, all d’Arenberg wines have been basket pressed, reds and whites, with all red ferments foot trod during fermentation.
Walking the vineyard rows and tasting grapes, Chester Osborn classifies and determines the ideal picking time for each individual vineyard.
Small batches of grapes are gently crushed, then transferred to five tonne headed-down open fermenters, all batches remain separate until final blending. The red wines are foot trod two thirds of the way through fermentation, and then basket pressed.
d’Arenberg is one of the only wineries in Australia to basket press both white wines as well as reds, making for a labour intensive process, but the quality of the results makes this worthwhile as the action is controlled and extremely gentle.
White wines are basket pressed before fermentation to ensure no colour or tannins are extracted from the skins, and the reds are pressed afterwards. After pressing, reds are transferred to barrel to complete fermentation, and then aged on lees to slow aging and keep the wine fresh, while also reducing oak influence.
All parcels remain separate until final blending, an extensive barrel tasting process is undertaken to determine the final wine. There is no racking until final blending, and the wines do not undertake fining or filtration prior to bottling.
