Winemaker Sergio Carlei from Carlei Estate won the Best New Entrant Trophy at the Australian Organic Wine Awards for his 2020 Carlei Estate Fruit Day Shiraz.
Heathcote winemaker Sergio Carlei has scooped three medals and the Best New Entrant Trophy for Shiraz vintages produced from the same vineyard at the 2023 Australian Organic Wine Awards.
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Bringing home the Best New Entrant Trophy and Gold Medal was the 2020 Carlei Estate Fruit Day Shiraz, while the 2020 Carlei Estate Root Day Shiraz and 2019 Carlei Estate SUD both achieved Bronze Medals at the awards.
Mr Carlei said even though the grapes were harvested only one day apart, he wasn’t surprised the trophy-winning 2020 Carlei Estate Fruit Day Shiraz was awarded higher in the blind tasting from its sister wine, the 2020 Carlei Estate Root Day Shiraz.
“The Carlei Estate Fruit Day usually wins the popularity vote because it expresses a higher degree of fruit as a result of when it is harvested on the biodynamic calendar,” Mr Carlei said.
“Both wines are produced from the same clone, grown in the same soil and on the same block, however, are harvested 24 hours apart on the calendar — one on ‘Fruit Day’ and one on ‘Root Day’.
“After 20 vintages of experimenting, we find the flavour profiles harvested on very specific days are consistent year after year, allowing us to predict the flavour profile prior to harvest based on the cosmological influences.
“While the grapes have grown in identical conditions, they have unique attributes displaying their own personality, which is what makes wine so interesting.”
The award-winning 2020 Carlei Estate Fruit Day Shiraz.
Carlei Estates’ third Bronze Medal from the Organic Wine Awards was granted to the 2019 Carlei Estate SUD, which Mr Carlei said was made from the same variety of grapes, but using a different clone, meaning it had a slightly varying flavour profile.
“While all three wines are classical Heathcote Shiraz, the Fruit Day and Root Day boast red and blackberry fruits with a black pepper spice, whereas the SUD presents more blueberry fruits with white pepper spicy notes,” he said.
The common theme across all the Carlei Estate medal-winning wines is their production under strict organic and biodynamic principles, which Mr Carlei said was influenced by his Italian heritage.
“My Nonno and Nonna used to grow very tasty vegetables in their backyard, and so it became apparent that plants grown free of chemicals under a sustainable environment were more flavoursome than their commercially available counterparts,” he said.
“I became fascinated with the conversion of grapes to wine while spending time in my Nonno’s ‘cantina’ where the annual pilgrimage of producing the home brew was something to look forward to and influenced me to adopt winemaking as a hobby in the 70s and 80s.”
Turning his hobby into a commercial business, Mr Carlei started producing certified organic wines in 1994 and says growing naturally free of toxic environmental interferences is the pretext to growing great flavoursome wine.
“Getting the best possible flavours and true varietal expression means the grapes need to be grown in an environment free of unnatural influences such as synthetic fertilisers and artificial herbicides and fungicides.”
Carlei Estate Wines produces more than 3000 cases of wine each year at its Heathcote and Cardinia Ranges certified organic vineyards, which can be purchased online, at the cellar door or vineyard venues, as well as in boutique wine bottle shops and restaurants.
