Six years ago Orange winemaker Duncan Cook decided to push his boundaries and make some new barrel-fermented reserve wines.
A couple of weeks ago the Cooks Lot Iconique Barrique wines were released: featuring a 2019 Cooks Lot ‘Iconique Barrique’ Rolled Chardonnay and 2019 Cooks Lot ‘Iconique Barrique’ R16R17 Pinot Noir.
The pair retails for $60 each and are a statement of confidence from a producer that is one of Orange’s best-kept secrets,
Cooks Lot, which started in 2002, is operated by former chef Cook on the slopes of Mount Canobolas.
After many years working as a chef at La Grillade in Crows Nest, Sydney, Cook enrolled at Charles Sturt University to study winemaking.
Driving weekly from Sydney to Wagga Wagga for lectures, he eventually decided to fully commit to a career in wine. Initially working in Mudgee, where he has family.
He was then drawn to cooler-climate varieties and began sourcing fruit from Orange in 2011.
In 2016, Duncan set out to create a new flagship wine, with pinot noir the natural choice. “It’s the one percenters that make the difference with these wines,” he said.
“We experimented with barrel fermenting red wines and saw the great depth and complexity it created.
”“You have to be half crazy to do it. It’s an enormous amount of work, and expensive, but the results speak for themselves. It’s gentler on the fruit than plunging, which can over-extract tannins. The result is softer tannins, beautiful secondary and charcuterie characters, and greater colour stability in the wine.”
The pinot noir is a wine that benefits from being open for a couple of hours before drinking, while the chardonnay is impressively complex and textural.
Cook believes Orange’s diversity is key to wine quality.
“Orange isn’t like any other wine region in Australia," he says. "There are multiple sub-regions within it; grapes grown at 600 metres are completely different to those at 1000 metres.”
The fruit for both wines is sourced small grower vineyard parcels sourced across this volcanic region.
“There are some fantastic growers in Orange,” Cook says
“Working with several of them gives me great flexibility in the winery. Combining higher-elevation fruit with grapes from lower sites adds complexity and balance to the finished wine.”
The 2019 Cooks Lot ‘Iconique Barrique’ R16R17 Pinot Noir was hand-picked and cold-soaked for three days before being micro-fermented in 900L rotating French barriques with a portion of whole bunches and wild yeast. Te barrels were rotated nine times per day, followed by five days of post-ferment maceration. The wine was matured in 900-litre French oak barriques for 16 months.
The 2019 Cooks Lot ‘Iconique Barrique’ Chardonnay Rolled was whole-bunch pressed, with the free-run juice barrel-fermented on partial solids with wild yeast to build texture and complexity. The wine was matured in new French oak puncheons for 24 months, with extended lees contact enhanced through modern barrel rolling.
See cookslot.com.au
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