Lyons Will Estate is a cool climate winery located in the Macedon Ranges.
Our energy is completely focused on varietals that flourish with ease in this region, specialising in Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gamay and Riesling.
Family owned and with ingrained European roots we intend to produce wines that ring true to this stunning and rare environment, that is the beauty of the Macedon Ranges.
Our energy is completely focused on varietals that flourish with ease in this region, specialising in Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gamay and Riesling.
Family owned and with ingrained European roots we intend to produce wines that ring true to this stunning and rare environment, that is the beauty of the Macedon Ranges.
2015 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay Officially Released!
After much anticipation and a huge amount of patience, it comes with great pleasure to introduce our 2015 vintage. Both wines are looking bright and youthful with plenty of character to match.
Stylistically very similar to V14 - this release certainly shows the weather conditions the fruit had to contend with during the year. In a nutshell there was plenty of hang time, providing depth of flavour and great acid structure, making both wines well rounded and typical to the Macedon Ranges.
Grab yourself a bottle or two, or perhaps even better still come visit us call 0412681940 for appointments or check out our online store to purchase.
Stylistically very similar to V14 - this release certainly shows the weather conditions the fruit had to contend with during the year. In a nutshell there was plenty of hang time, providing depth of flavour and great acid structure, making both wines well rounded and typical to the Macedon Ranges.
Grab yourself a bottle or two, or perhaps even better still come visit us call 0412681940 for appointments or check out our online store to purchase.
the 2017 Vintage updateThe 2017 vintage:
A complicated year to say the least. Is often said the quality of the year can be set in the winter time, and by enlarge we felt that this was the case. The record amount of rain received over winter did wonders for our vines and our water catchment dams. The deep soaking meant that bud burst was strong and flowering stronger. Budburst came on a little later than previous years however the weather was pretty perfect for consistent growth and healthy flowers. The summer was hot, but not unbearable, infact we had some quite cool evening, and as version set in we started to see a shift in weather. March was complicated, more cold than not, prolonging the ripening period, it seemed the closer we got to harvest the more unpredictable the weather would be. Rain once again form part of the equation with it being quite wet thought March, this made picking very hard to predict, and diseas a real concern. 
Chardonnay
That being said we managed to pick the Chardonnay exactly when we felt it was right – in terms of alcohol but more important acidity, and depth of flavour. We managed to pick all the Chardonnay in a morning with it being vinified that afternoon, in an otherwise faultless process. The fruit is destemmed, and crushed, and then hand placed into an 800kg wooden basket press, the fruit then is pressed gently to an extraction rate of 60% of which we then move the juice to French barriques for fermentation. For our chardonnay we import nearly a thing of the barrels required from premium French coopers, this vintage will see a total of 27% new oak, the rest fermented and settled over winter in 2nd and 3th use barrels. Once fermented dry, we stop the wine to prevent malolactic fermentation to preserve the presence of the natural acidity which complements the overall balance of the palate. This wine will continue to live in barrel for the next 11 months, in which it will then go to tank for final blending, fining and minimal filtering prior to bottling in September 2018. 
Riesling
Pinot, Gamay and Riesling where not as cool customers. Due to the Riesling and Gamay vines being only three years old we always knew that there would be inconsistency in the growing patterns so predicting perfect harvest would always be tricky. Both varietals grew extremely well, this in part to the nice consistent spring temperatures but more importantly the plants taking advantage of the deep soaking the soil had received throughout winter. Summer was also kind in the sense that it wasn’t too warm and didn’t stress the plants or fruit development too much. That being said the fruit development slowed down, in March – inline with the weather cooling and the rains setting in, this again posed a challenge, we decided to pick a little earlier then preferred on the basis that the quality of fruit would not be compromised and the acid levels would be at levels that would give the wine aging potential. Given that we don’t do acid modification – keeping as much of the natural acids as possible is the corner stone to our Riesling. (You might want to add and edit this) In the winery this fruit was destemmed, crushed and basket pressed, and left in tank to settle for a day at 15 degrees. It was then moved to 4th, 5th and 6th use French bariques, for fermentation. Once fermented dry, we sulphured to prevent malo taking place but left the wine on lease to further develop texture and character over the winter months, this wine will be blended and racked into steel tank in the middle of winter with a view to bottle in early spring. We are extra excited by the progress of this wine, we can only see it develop further and better, the acid line is excellent and the nose is floaral, fruity and nicely balanced with subtle oak. We see this as one of our finest Chardonnay vintages to date. |
the 2017 Vintage update.. contGamay
Gamay too had a prolonged ripening period but unlike the Riesling the fruit was looked plump and juicy and ready to be munched on, by nature! At one point we where loosing 100kg of fruit per day to hungry European wasps – whom traveled from a neighboring vineyard that had in previous weeks been devastated by this imported pest. We pull the Gamay off on X, and as it was our first vintage it was very hard to know what to expect from the fruit, which turned up in quite large clusters, with a little hen and chicken and some berries clearly over ripe and some under – which is a characteristic of the Gamay plant. In the winery we decided to split the parcel into two distinct wine making styles, one being a modern new world style, destemming, crushing and fermenting into open vats inoculated with a specific yeast, and the proper old world style of 100% whole bunch semi carbonic fermentation, gently foot stomped every week. Once fermented dry both where hand moved and put through a 800k basket press in which we gently extracted to 65% and transferred to old third and four use French barriques. They are currently waiting to go through Malo, which should happen early spring when things warm up. 
Pinot Noir
Normally we tend to pick all our Pinot in one go, however we have four clones of Pinot of which all responded to the conditions in march differently. Our clones are a mixutre of plants from the Cote-d-Or (early ripening) and others a littler further south (Vougot) which like it a little warmer. This meant that we had to make three different Pinot wines, with a view to blend them back at a later date. This is the only way we could ensure we got the best fruit, developed inline with the weather conditions. Its fair to say we decided to pick the Pinot when we felt the acid level and the flavours developed correctly, the cool weather didn’t allow for the fruit to develop huge levels of sugar, hence there was no point on leavnign the fruit on to be comprimised by the rains. That being said the juice looked splendid, the colour perfect and the tannin's obvious, the palate weight is in line with our Pinot making style, elegant, clean and pretty. The fruit was destemmed, crushed and placed into open vats with 15-17% of whole bunch for further development of charater. They then had a week of cold soaking with wild yeast starting the ferment which was boosted by an inoculation. The complete process of fermentation to pressing takes around three weeks, where it is gently pressed in a 800kg wooden press, and gently pumped into new 25%, 2nd, 3rd and 4th used oak. They will sit there over winter until spring where we will be seeing through malolactic fermentation. Once in barrel for 11 months we will be blending back to one wine, and bottling with it fined but unfiltered. We are super excited by this vintage, it shows good potential, balance and freshness. In essence this year threw up some challenges, however no more than usual, keeping us all on our toes! That being said we feel all wines look smart, and we are super proud to have produced our first Riesling and Gamay wines, we look forward to seeing them develop and provide to our clients to enjoy. Finnaly i would like to say a huge thank you to Jorge, Nick, and Carlo for being such great help, without you none of it would have happened. Thanks Ollie Rapson - Owner & Vigneron 
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