By Aldo Cevaal Corvaal Wines, Upper Goulburn, Victoria
First published in the July/August 2015 issue of the Wine & Viticulture Journal
In 2010 my family saw an opportunity to purchase a boutique winery. Lost Valley was one of Australia’s most respected cool climate boutique wineries growing four varietals in Victoria’s high country, just below the snow line at 430 metres. In this pristine environment, without power or pollution, we continue to create excellent quality wines including the jewel in the crown, Australia’s first commercial Cortese, a rare northern Italian varietal.
There have been some necessary changes made, particularly in the branding of the product, but the team of Alex White, winemaker, and Paul Hilder, vineyard manager, remains in place.
Through an unfortunate set of circumstances, the Lost Valley brand was lost to us which required that we reinvent ourselves. Bottling was about to commence when we discovered we no longer had the brand.
Together with my wife and two sons we dug deep to meet multiple deadlines resulting in the rebranding and re-engineering of our marketing strategy. Our first vintage, 2013, completely sold out within months of bottling. The following vintage met with similar success.
When we discovered we no longer had the Lost Valley brand, we thought we were facing financial disaster. Instead, out of adversity came opportunity and we have successfully established a new brand that has two successful vintages under its belt and we look forward to the next vintage.
VITICULTURE
The first Cortese vines were introduced to the vineyard in 1998 when two acres were planted. We have embarked on an expansion program that will see this acreage doubled.
Hand pruning, leaf plucking, bunch thinning, handpicking – that is just part of the care given to producing the best fruit possible to in turn meet the level of quality for which our vineyard is known.
Budburst is generally mid-season with maturity tending towards late season. Vigour is high as are yields. The challenge is to contain the fruit to a maximum of three tonnes per acre.
The vines are planted one-and-a-half metres apart with row spacings of 2.4m. Vines are trained to a single wire with two foliage wires on either side, and are drought tolerant. They are not particularly susceptible to disease as is so often the case of other varieties.
Bunches are large and extremely compact with a green-yellow bloom. The canopy is very thick and requires severe pruning. Pruning itself is to long arched canes. Currently the vines are watered by a drip system.
WINEMAKING AND THE WINE
The golden opalescent fruit for the 2015 Corvaal Cortese was hand-picked on 31 March at an optimum ripeness of 13.5 Baume, while still retaining a good acidity level. It was then crushed and pressed, cold settled and racked. The clear juice was cool fermented over four weeks before settling and racking off gross lees.
The wine has aromas of honeydew melon and citrus while the palate is dry and savoury with good texture and fine acidity.
Cortese
By Peter Dry, Emeritus Fellow, The Australian Wine Research Institute
Background
Cortese (kor-TAY-zay) has been known in Piedmont in north east Italy since the 17th century. Today it is the fifth most important variety of Piedmont and mainly grown in the south eastern part of the province. Globally there were 2953 ha in 2010 (down 5% from 2000), close to 100% in Italy. It is best known in the DOCG Cortese di Gavi (Gavi di Gavi) and also used as a varietal in several DOCs: Cortese del Alto Monferrato and Cortese Colli Tortonesi . Synonyms include Bianca Fernanda, Corteis, Courteis, Courtesia, Cortesi and Raverusto. Cortese is also grown in Oltrepo Pavese (Lombardy) and Garda (Veneto). Garda Cortese DOC is produced in the hills near Lake Garda. Cortese may also be a minor component of DOC Bianco di Custoza, a blended white wine of the Veneto region mainly comprising Trebbiano Toscano, Garganega and Friulano. There were 2953 ha in Italy in 2010. In Australia, there are currently at least 3 wine producers, in SA and Victoria.
Viticulture
Budburst is midseason and maturity is early to mid season. Vigour is moderate with semi-erect growth habit. Bunches are medium and well-filled with medium yellow-gold berries. Yield is good and regular. Cane pruning is used in Italy. Cortese has average susceptibility to downy and powdery mildews, but higher susceptibility to bunchrot. There is clonal variation in Italy in terms of variation in wine flavour and structure, and suitability for sparkling wine—but there appears to be just the one clone available in Australia. Some reports suggest that yield control is necessary to avoid wines lacking in character. Also acidity may be excessively high in cool sites.
Wine
Cortese is used for both still and sparkling wine styles that are rarely of exceptional quality. Wines are pale lemon-white in colour, light with good acidity, crisp and elegant. The aroma is delicate, ranging from neutral to citrusy to notes of honey and stone fruit. The best wines have good structure and body. Some producers use malolactic fermentation to mitigate the variety’s high acidity, but it is usually produced in a crisp, dry style.
