Little Reddie
Malmsbury and Colbinabbin, Victoria.
Available in New South Wales, ACT.
Pat Underwood has always been on our radar... Firstly as that incredibly jovial sommelier at Melbourne’s City Wine Shop (THE guy to ask what one should drink), and now as the still-incredibly-jovial winemaker of Little Reddie. Pat runs his negociant winemaking project out of Colbinabbin and Malmsbury, Victoria (he also co-founded the Boomtown Co-op, an urban-style country winery in Castlemaine, known for their gorgeous vin de soif). His first vintage was 2015.
The strength in this tiny label is talent and exuberance of Pat himself: he's dedicated to uncovering unique vineyards in Central Victoria, whether it’s tiny dry-grown plots in Malmsbury, obscure plantings of indigenous Venetian varieties or deep red, iron rich sites planted to beautifully bloody and mineral Nebbiolo. His relationships with his growers are fierce, in part due to his charming personality, but also because he works alongside them wherever he can, sharing ethics and values on the land and in the cellar.
Pat’s wines are made with passionate intuition and minimal intervention across the board—not necessarily with the aim of producing 'low fi' wine he says, but to give a truer representation of the season and terroir. He thus calls it 'hi-fi'—we like it. Due to the negociant-style nature of the Little Reddie beast, the wines available change as frequently as the vintage and places from which they derive. There are some mainstays, like his NEW! Nebbiolo Refosco (a play on the French nouveau and representing an immediately digestible style of red), the luscious “Super Juice” rosé, his cheeky Pét-nat, and Pinot and Chardonnay from the Rush Brothers vineyard in Malmsbury. Added to this are his SYR (Single Year Release) projects, which are always rare and exciting things. They have recently included a bottle fermented Prosecco from Nagambie and a Shiraz carved from a small parcel off Bannockburn Vineyards’ Winery Block.
Wine
Single Year Release Prosecco
Variety
Prosecco
Terroir
Decomposed granite, north/south orientation
Vineyard
Box Grove Vineyard
Winemaking
Fruit hand-harvested and whole-bunch pressed with a manual operation then settled, fermented in tank and racked a couple of times mid-ferment, then chilled (small sulphur addition of 20 ppm). Secondary fermentation in bottle over 18 months on fine lees.
NEW! Colbinabbin Nebbiolo Super Juice
Variety
Nebbiolo
Vineyard
Willoughby Bridge
Winemaking
De-stemmed fruit, chilled and sealed up in tank for one week, followed by pressing with lots of oxygen to an open-top tank for vigorous fermentation before racking to one old puncheon and hogshead. Blended with rosé (some barrels with really aggressive exposure to oxygen, others pristine). No additions whatsoever.
NEW! Colbinabbin Nebbiolo Refosco
Variety
Nebbiolo and Refosco
Terroir
Iron-rich
Vineyard
Willoughby Bridge and Chalmers vineyards
Winemaking
Early-pick Nebbiolo rosé pressings fermented in barrique and de-stemmed Nebbiolo and Refosco fermented individually in stainless. Blended late May to stainless and racked a couple of times before bottling, with less than 40 ppm total sulphur.
Brothers Malmsbury Chardonnay
Variety
Chardonnay
Terroir
Basalt with rusted basalt and quartz. Dry-grown at 450-500m altitude on a gentle northeast-facing slope.
Vineyard
Rush Brothers
Viticulture
Sustainable
Winemaking
Gently whole-bunch pressed manually, then cold settled in stainless without additions. Fermented sub-18 degrees, long and slow in older puncheon and barrique (with one new puncheon). Barrels topped weekly. Racked to tank with 15 ppm sulphur then bottled six months later.
Single Year Release Woori Yallock Sauvignon Blanc
Variety
Sauvignon Blanc
Terroir
Calcareous white clay soils, north-facing slope
Vineyard
Lone Star Creek Vineyard
Winemaking
Three-quarters gently whole-bunch-pressed and the remainder de-stemmed on top of the juice. Very cold fermentation with very gentle hand-plunging over a week or so. Skins scooped off the top and disposed of (without pressing). Moved to a closed-top tank until fermented to dryness, then to three-old-barriques and one small tank for elevage. Some sulphur added.
Single Year Release Bannockburn Chardonnay
Variety
Chardonnay
Terroir
Mix of volcanic topsoils (basalt) over limestone
Vineyard
Bannockburn Vineyard, Winery block. Geelong
Winemaking
Fruit de-stemmed and pressed into stainless, then settled before fermentation in one old puncheon, one second-pass hogshead and an old barrique for overflow. Fermentation times varied, all long and slow but especially so for the hogshead. Racked to stainless in spring, before bottling in late winter. Small sulphur additions both at the racking and at bottling.
Is Sex Colbinabbin Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso
Variety
Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso
Terroir
Ultra-red Colbinabbin soils, east/west orientation
Vineyard
Chalmers
Winemaking
Fermented in a closed-top stainless steel fermenter with regular pump-overs and without additions. Free-=run sent to three (used) barriques with just two kept aside for the final bottling of this wine. Racked only once before bottling. Small sulphur additions during the move and again on the day of bottling.
Single Year Release Bannockburn Shiraz
Vineyard
Bannockburn Vineyard, Winery block. Geelong.
Winemaking
De-stemmed fruit (75%) with a small layer of whole-bunch placed on the bottom of the stainless steel fermenter. Pressed after four weeks or so with gentle plunging or occasional pump-overs. Remaining 25% fermented as whole bunches in a small carbonic vessel, untouched for a week and followed by a few days of gentle foot-treading before pressing. Quiet time in stainless for around one month before transfer to old, large format French oak. Racked into tank in late January before being bottled late February. Minimal sulphur added.
Orders
For all order enquiries please get in touch.