Tapanappa
Tapanappa is the 21st century chapter of an adventure pioneering the modern era of the Adelaide Hills wine region. Brian and Ann Croser founded Tapanappa in 2002, with the intention to produce fine wine from ‘Distinguished Sites’; single vineyards that give uniquely Australian ‘terroir’ driven wines.
With the winery and cellar door based in the Piccadilly Valley, Brian works primarily with three cool-climate South Australian wine regions; Piccadilly Valley, a sub-region of the Adelaide Hills, Wrattonbully and the Southern Fleurieu.
History
Brian Croser AO has had an incredibly rich career in wine, viticulture and education. He has been highly lauded throughout, is an important innovator and has been a mentor and inspiration to so many.
Educated at the University of Adelaide, where he was later Deputy Chancellor for eight years, and at the University of California at Davis, Brian was involved in establishing the Charles Sturt Wine Science degree in Wagga Wagga as well as many of the major Australian wine industry institutions through the 1970s and ‘80s. He has an Honorary Doctorate from Charles Sturt University and a Doctor of the University of Adelaide.
Brian and Ann Croser began Petaluma in 1976 and set about exactingly matching varieties to regions and meticulously managing for 27 years the vines in Petaluma’s “Distinguished Site” vineyards in Clare, the Adelaide Hills and Coonawarra. In late 2002, Ann and Brian founded Tapanappa, at the original Tiers Vineyard and winery site.
Cuvées
Eden Valley Vineyard Riesling
B&V Vineyard Syrah, Mount Barker
Piccadilly Valley Vineyard Chardonnay, Piccadilly Valley
Tiers 1.5M Vineyard Chardonnay, Piccadilly Valley
Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay, Piccadilly Valley
Foggy Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir, Southern Fleurieu
Definitus Pinot Noir, Southern Fleurieu
Whalebone Vineyard Cabernet Shiraz, Wrattonbully
Whalebone Vineyard Merlot Cabernet Franc, Wrattonbully
Viticulture & Winemaking
Tapanappa’s three distinguished sites are;
- The Tiers Vineyard planted with Chardonnay in the Piccadilly Valley in 1979,
- The Whalebone Vineyard planted to the Cabernet varieties in Wrattonbully in 1974 and
- The Foggy Hill Vineyard planted with Pinot Noir on the Fleurieu Peninsula in 2003.
Since 2002, the Croser family have invested significantly in the refinement of the viticulture of these three distinguished sites. The old vines at the Tiers and Whalebone vineyards have been restructured and re-trellised. New vineyards have been planted with superior clones on rootstocks at very close spacing at both the Tiers and Whalebone vineyards.
The Croser family have also pioneered a new wine region at Parawa on the Fleurieu Peninsula by planting Dijon clones of Pinot Noir on rootstocks at the close-spaced Foggy Hill Vineyard. These vineyard investments are consistent with Brian’s belief that Australia cannot compete with the best of the fine wines of Europe and North America without significant further investment in the improvement of vineyards aimed at improved grape and wine quality.
Tapanappa is unique in Australian viticulture, having new vineyards planted to the traditional European formula of close spacing (1.5 meters X 1.5 meters) with the vines only 0.5 meters above the soil surface and in all three regions.
Winemaking
All fruit from Tapanappa is hand-picked then processed at their picturesque winery in the Piccadilly Valley and inoculated with a special yeast strain developed by Brian.
The three Chardonnays are made in the same way: chilled grapes are tipped into gentle air-bag pressed and the whole fruit is pressed and pumped into tank before being gravitated into French barriques, one third new, for fermentation then ageing on lees with no malolactic fermentation.
Equally, the two Pinot Noirs undergo the same winemaking process to show the difference in terroir. Use of whole-bunch depends on vintage, with little or no whole-bunch fruit used in cooler years. Fermentation tubs are filled with destemmed, crushed and chilled must, inoculated then hand plunged daily.
At the end of fermentation, a short period of maceration on skins occurs before being pressed block by block, clone by clone, to barriques (one third new).
Regarding the Whalebone Vineyard wines, grapes are destemmed, lightly roller crushed and chilled to 2°C on the way to 0.85 tonne fermenting tubs. After a short cold soak, the fermentation is hand plunged then left on skins. Parcels of grapes are kept separately, as they are gently pressed away and gravitated to French oak barriques then aged in French barriques then blended before bottling.