Scorpo ‘Bestia’ Skin-contact Pinot Grigio 2022

The Scorpo Bestia Pinot Grigio is based on the method that my father Sebastian and his friends made white wine from the 1950s on. It was 100% lightly crushed and wild-yeast fermented in concrete fermenters that he had built. This of course all occurred in the garage in Coburg, Melbourne. A true garagiste!

After fermentation, the wine was basket pressed (which he built himself) and about 250 litres was made. Mostly it was a mixture of Malvasia with about 5% Waltham Cross. It was matured in old whiskey barrels for about 3 months and then hand bottled. In the seventies we started to source old French wine barrels. My father and his friends would meet most Saturdays for lunch, and play the card game ‘bestia’, meaning the beast. Most of all they met to drink each other’s wines and try to all present that their wine was the superior.

30% whole bunches with 70% destemmed Pinot Grigio grapes undergo wild yeast fermentation in an open-top fermenter, with between 10 and 17 days on skins. Aged for 12 months in neutral French oak barriques. It is unfiltered and suitable for vegans.