Churchview Estate St Johns Zinfandel, Margaret River

Description

Churchview Estate St Johns Zinfandel is a red wine from Margaret River. Although Zinfandel is most closely associated with California there has a been a long tradition of growing it in Western Australia.

Churchview Estate is an award-winning, family-owned wine producer located in the Margaret River wine-growing region of Western Australia. The estate was founded in 1999 by father and son team Spike and Raymond Fokkema and is situated near the locality of Metricup just off the Bussell Highway. Spike had emigrated from The Netherlands in the 1950s and had been a successful businessman prior to purchase. Today  the estate is owned and run by Raymond Fokkema and his sister Sharon Bosveld (who joined the family business over 20 years ago). The winemaker is David Longden. Churchview Estate was awarded with a 5 star winery rating in James Halliday’s 2016 and 2020 classifications.

The estate takes it name from the view of the heritage listed Anglican Church of Saint John the Baptist which can be seen from the estate. The single vineyard estate comprises some 100 hectares with 56 hectares of vines. The site was carefully selected for its maritime climate, ideal and fertile gravelly loam soils, ample clean water and north facing slopes and 16 different grapes varieties are grown. Organic certification was awarded in 2020.

Churchview Estate estate produces several different ranges of wine, the flagship wines are the limited release, handcrafted Bartondale range, which is named after the dairy farm that was originally on the site. There follows the St Johns range, made from more unusual grape varieties, which is named after aforementioned, neighbouring church. There is also the fruit driven Silverleaf range.

The grapes for the Churchview Estate St Johns Zinfandel come from a one hectare block of vines planted in 2005. The grapes are handpicked in the early morning and the fruit is sorted. The fruit spends 3 days cold soaking to enhance and extract desirable aroma and flavour compounds. Fermentation began in stainless steel vats with 10 days of contact on skins. Afterwards, the wine is pressed into a mixture of French and American oak barrels. After around 14 months of oak maturation, the wine was blended back into a stainless steel vat, filtered and bottled. Minimal intervention winemaking allows this powerful varietal to speak for itself.

As with a lot of Western Australian Zinfandel this is a powerful wine with an ABV of 16%.

Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.