Winemaking
At Rochford we believe winemaking is driven by intuition, guided by the fruit itself. Every season gives us something new, a blank canvas with vivid possibilities. It's actually quite a creative task, to shape the winemaking processes in an ever-balanced interaction with the demands of the season.
The Fruit
It all comes down to fruit in the end. The fruit is the meeting point of vineyard and winery; Where one ends, the next begins. Rochford has invested heavily in vineyard and winery development over the last 5 years. Vines have been re-worked, new clones planted, ecosystems for improving soil and pest control have been embraced. The Rochford winery is now home to a state of the art processing equipment, a mechanical sorting conveyor, a de-stemming machine designed to maintain the integrity of whole berries, and a press with sensitively variable pressure rates.
All this technology, to enable the simplest of objectives. To let the fruit, speak for itself.
Australians love wine. In fact, Australians love Australian wine especially. Wine has become a symbol of lifestyle in our society, often associated with a gathering of loved ones, a celebration or the marking of an achievement. Each wine in the different Rochford ranges is designed to speak to the many different reasons we all have for enjoying a glass of wine.
The Rochford range
The fruit for wines in the Rochford range is selected on pure varietal flavour and as an expression of the region the grapes come from. The Rochford range is about expressing a sense of a region in a style designed to impart youthful exuberance. The winemaking techniques for this range feature whole berry or crushed berry ferments, minimal to no oak on whites and a mix of new and older oak barrels for reds. Wines are bottled with minimal fining thanks to the state-of-the-art processing equipment which allows for gentle handling and superior fruit selection throughout the winemaking process.
The Rochford Estate range
With all the fruit coming from Rochford owned or managed vineyards and most from the iconic home vineyard, the range is about expressing the flavours of Rochford. The 100% hand-picked fruit and harvested in strict batches to retain plenty of control over ferment and blending decisions. This range embraced both the natural and inoculated ferment methods, with a combination of whole bunch and whole berries where appropriate. An increase in the maceration times and oak components allows greater complexity to develop in this range. Wines are bottled with minimal to no fining thanks again to the winery equipment. The Rochford Estate range showcases all the elegance and flavour intensity you come to expect in the Yarra Valley, resulting in wines that show well young, but age gracefully.
The Rochford Single Vineyard range
This selective range depicts a strong sense of place and is a celebration of the diversity of the Yarra Valley soils and microclimates. Each parcel of fruit has been allocated after years of discovering the best performing pockets of vineyard under the Rochford banner. Hand-picked when flavours are at their peak, wild fermented in small batches to retain purity of site and developed into wines of clarity and stunning intensity through extended maceration times and high-quality oak. The style of each wine is determined by the flavours in each parcel of fruit. Each Single Vineyard wine expresses its individuality and sheer purity of flavour that lingers long in the memory and even longer in the cellar.
In support of MOVEMBER this month, we’re donating $5 from every transaction of $100 or more to the MOVEMBER FOUNDATION