Collection: BASS PHILLIP

Phillip Jones handcrafted tiny quantities of superlative pinot noir which, at its best, had no equal in Australia. Painstaking site selection, ultra-close vine spacing and the very cool climate of South Gippsland are the keys to the magic of Bass Phillip and its eerily burgundian pinots. One of Australia’s greatest small producers, it's been heading down a new path since Jones sold the assets (winery, stock and 14ha of vineyards) in May '20 to a syndicate led by Burgundian winemaker Jean-Marie Fourrier (who has known Jones for 14 years) and 2 Singaporeans who already have lucrative wine businesses. -JAMES HALLIDAY

More About The Winemaking 

Bunches are carefully sorted upon arrival at the winery on a sorting table then conveyed to a ‘state of the art’ incline destemmer. The whole berries are gently conveyed directly to open fermenters with an addition of 40 ppm SO2. A natural ferment starts usually within 4 days but hand plunging commences from the start until draining/pressing. Usually between 10-14 days from harvest, the wine is drained, the skins pressed gently and combined with the free run wine which is settled for a week or so before racking to barrel using gravity. Malo lactic occurs naturally in barrel and once complete the wine gets 60 ppm SO2. Our Estate Pinot is a selection of the best barrels of our Leongatha vineyard of which 22% were new this year. All barrels are lightly toasted and extra tight grain oak. Barrels are topped and checked regularly. Wine stays in barrel for 14 months, then it simply gravity decanted off lees via a spigot inserted at the bottom of the barrel to a blending tank. No fining of any sort, or filtration before bottling in July 2022. A natural deposit may become present over time in the bottle.

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