Crittenden Wines - Learn

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29 May 2019 | Renee Street

Our vegan friendly wines

More and more, we are getting asked from our customers, is your wine vegan friendly? To make it a little easier to determine, here is a list below of all our current Vegan friendly wines.

29/05/2019 at 2:19 PM

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22 May 2019 | Renee Street

Chardonnay – the winemakers blank canvas

Chardonnay continues to hold a special place among Australian wine lovers, and remains the nation’s top white variety, second overall behind Shiraz.

The Crittenden family have been making Chardonnay on the Mornington Peninsula for 35 years. As you enter the estate, you drive past the vines that were planted by the family back in 1982. These vines are some of the oldest you’ll find in the region.

Chardonnay is one of those wonderful grape varieties that allows for interpretive winemaking techniques. Its versatility means it’s almost like giving a winemaker a blank canvas to create a Chardonnay to their taste and style. A Chardonnay made in the Napa Valley would most likely taste completely different to one made on the Mornington Peninsula. Perhaps surprisingly though, two wineries in the same region could also produce Chardonnays that taste completely different depending on each winemaker’s preferred style, taste and techniques.

Crittenden Estate creates several different Chardonnays from the original family plantings and also with grapes sourced from other local growers. All of these are hand harvested and whole bunch pressed, however the nose and palate characteristics vary from wine to wine.

One of our premium Chardonnays, ‘The Zumma’ is traditional blend from the oldest plantings on our vineyard. It’s a rich and complex wine that retains a level of finesse due to the Mornington Peninsula’s cool climate. On the nose you’ll find lemon zest and fig with almond notes providing savouriness to the palate.

The ‘Kangerong’ Chardonnay, also from the home vineyard, is a blend of 3 individual blocks ranging in vine age and aspect. Its aroma shows more robust characters of white stone fruit and citrus whilst still retaining a beautiful core of vibrant acid which is again attributable to the cooling effect of the region’s maritime influences.

Chardonnay is one of the many examples of how a wine can take you on a journey you didn’t expect. We have a lot of people who say to us, “Oh I’m not a Chardonnay drinker”. They then taste and compare a few of the different Chardonnays we have in our wine centre and discover it’s a variety they enjoy after all - they just preferred one over another. Perhaps it was a more rich or complex style versus those that have more acidity or fruit drive. That’s the advantage of the Crittenden Wine Centre tasting experience, you’re able to compare wines and styles and no doubt discover at least a few wines that suit your personal palate.

If it's been a while since you've tasted a Chardonnay, why not come and discover how the variety may have changed from what you last remember...

. Wine tasting at Crittenden Estate Crittenden Estate wines Crittenden Estate chardonnay

The Zumma chardonnay Crittenden Estate Kangerong Range Crittenden Estate Peninsula Range

22/05/2019 at 2:43 PM

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22 November 2018 | Renee Street

In Garry's words, how a pilgrimage to Piemonte led him to arneis

In 1992 I made my first pilgrimage to Piemonte in Northern Italy in search of the Holy Grail [aka Nebbiolo] along with the lesser luminaries Barbera and Dolcetto.I’d also heard and read about a white wine variety local to the region called arneis but I’d never seen or tasted one in Australia.

While there, I was delighted to taste many fine examples of the 3 reds but try as I might, couldn’t locate the elusive arneis.

The repeated response to my enquires was a sort of blank indifference with the advice “you want to try our Piemonte white wine then look for cortese”

Late in my 7 day visit I did locate a bottle in a restaurant in La Morra. I recall enjoying it then forgetting about it; that was that.

Fast forward three years…

In the spring of 1995 I was invited to present our range of Italian varietals at a tasting for the Wine Science students in Adelaide University.

As I was leaving the tasting I was approached by a middle aged man who said “I’m not a student [ obviously ] but I heard you were coming to town so I gate crashed the party”

“I’m the manager of the vine improvement society at Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley; have you ever heard of an Italian variety called arneis?” I said I had, to which he asked if I had a home for 500 vines.

It turned out that about 3 years earlier he had been approached by a local [ Barossa ] grower who requested he import, quarantine then supply him with arneis stock.

This he duly did.

When he contacted the grower in 1995 to say his vines were ready the grower sheepishly told him he had planted the patch with something else, and no longer needed them.

How there could be such a glaringly poor communication trail I don’t know.

On the spur of the moment I agreed to buy all 500 vines which were duly shipped over to Dromana beautifully uniform and about a metre high trained and staked up in 6 inch pots.

I planted them out and got a small first crop in 1997. At the time we claimed to be the first people in Australia and maybe even the Southern Hemisphere to plant the variety.

We made arneis for nigh on 20 years with varying degrees of success in sales and marketing, but time and seeming indifference to this lovely wine have worn us down.

We have grafted the bulk over to Chardonnay and I personally have made what will be our last vintage in 2018.

Open and read Garry's 'Endangered' wine a family project which tells the story of “ENDANGERED” : our arneis and turtle colonies along Australia’s East coast, a loose connection I agree.

This is mainly a human interest story more to do with the passion of a child on a mission, but that said the wine is bloody nice as well.

We have only 80 dozen for sale primarily at cellar door, so if you’re interested in trying the last of my arneis, I suggest not waiting too long

22/11/2018 at 6:38 PM

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21 November 2018 | Renee Street

Garry's 'Endangered' wine a family project

It would be fair to assume that Italian grape varieties and sea turtles don't have a lot in common. But for Garry's latest wine 'Endangered' this is not the case.

In 1995 when he saw Italy's Arneis becoming forgotten, he planted the Piemontese variety on the estate, the first vineyard in the Southern Hemisphere to do so we believe. 2018 is tthe final vintage of his Arneis as the vines are now grafted to Chardonnay.

Fast forward a little from 1995..While Garry and his grandson Oscar were watching a video "Straw no More"(Google Molly Steer), Oscar decided to help the sea turtles by campaigning to abolish the use of plastic straws; even writing to McDonalds to fight for the cause.

Oscar had given Garry a picture of the turtles he'd drawn at school. Seeing synergies between the two plights, Garry decided to use Oscar's picture as the label for his latest, and final, Arneis release. A lovely culmination between the two projects.

To further support Oscar's cause, Garry is personally donating $20 for every case of Endangered wine sold to a Turtle Rehabilitation Centre in Cairns.

Garry's 'Endangered' Arneis is available for tasting and purchase in our wine centre, however with only a small quantity produced, we suggest not waiting too long...