Producer Profile: Each morning before tending to his grapes grown on half-a-century-old vines in the sandy soils of Seymour, an hour and a half’s drive from Melbourne, winemaker Jordy Kay takes a dip in the Goulburn River. It’s this river that forms the valley in which the various rows of Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling, Merlot first bud before flowering and fruiting to ripeness. Working here in the southerly Australian state of Victoria, Jordy Kay is a winemaker with a huge wealth of experience grapegrowing, despite the fact that he is barely the other side of 30 years old. He’s had more than a decade and a half of time among the vines after dropping out of school at age 17, working vintages in the Margaret River, Austria, Tasmania, Portugal, Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley, the Otway Ranges, and now finally in the Goulburn Valley. He is an utterly dedicated natural winemaker with seemingly boundless energy who’s taken the dictates of his viticultural approach beyond the cellar and vines. Jordy along with his wife, the architect Julia Kay, have founded a company called “Great Wrap” which solves a kind of invisible environmental hazard within the wine-supply-chain. The amount of plastic pallet wrap necessary to box and ship the natural wines they were making made the endeavor feel very not-natural, and so to solve this problem they only went and created their own company based around a kind of compostable cling wrap. It’s an example of the enterprising and common sense dedication that undergirds this very exciting young winemaker from down under.

Vinification: A zero-zero, 100% organic Cab Franc. Grapes are hand-harvested and direct pressed. Fermented with native yeasts and bottled unfined, unfiltered, with no SO2. 

Tasting Notes: Subtly-sweet, clotted cream and cantaloupe on the nose. The palate is full bodied, juicy and citrusey. A playful, mellow winter rose to while the afternoon away alongside Bridgerton or a juicy Tana French novel.