D'Arenberg The Broken Fishplate Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is a crisp, mineral-driven white from the cool Adelaide Hills. Organically grown and partially oak-fermented, it offers floral aromatics with notes of peach, guava, and lime zest. Rounded and mellow, it’s a balanced, refreshing choice for warm days.

Jamessuckling.com | JS 90
Published: Mar 28, 2022

Picked fresh and bright, this has aromas of peach, apple and guava with a fresh and succulent palate. Juicy, fleshy and packed with flavor. Smooth finish. From organically grown grapes. Drink now. Screw cap.

Darenberg.com.au

An intriguing Sauvignon Blanc from the cool climate Adelaide Hills.

The Name
Despite being a good match for fish, the name has nothing to do with them! A fishplate is a term for the nylon plates that collect grape bunches on a harvester, and often break when navigating around the steep, windy vineyards.

The Vintage
The preceding winter was beautifully wet, flushing the soil of salts and filling the soil profile. Spring too was above average, with rainfalls up until November which was almost completely dry. November was hotter than normal which upset the setting of berries. Just as well as the bunch number was way up. Two inches of rain in early February was much appreciated by the relatively large crops. Where crops where smaller, berry size grew. The heat produced a fast flowering, set, and speedy berry development leading to an early veraison and the equal earliest start of vintage on record. A few days in a row around 35°C in February rapidly ripened early lower cropping vineyards. From then on, the vintage was mild and dry. Average temperatures for autumn were down. Some nice 30°C days late March and early April helped finish ripening of bigger crops and late ripening varieties.

The Winemaking
The fruit for this wine is sourced from the cool climate Adelaide Hills. Small batches of grapes are gently crushed, chilled, and then transferred to stainless steel basket presses.
Gentle extraction of the juice is critical in these early stages to retain the delicate fruit characters. To add complexity and mouthfeel, a small percentage of the wine is partially fermented in aged French oak for two to three weeks.

The Characteristics
Very light pale lemony colour. Extremely mineral, fresh, and aromatic nose. A very floral bouquet of white flowers, lilies. Still has some passionfruit, fresh snap snow peas. Lime and lemon zest. Slate. Quite floral and blossom. Perfect wine for a warm sunny day. Not as green and acidic as previous vintages. Much more rounded and mellow. Represents the cooler vintage that it was.