John Duval Plexus White Barossa 2023
Pale straw in colour, the wine has vibrant notes of ripe nectarine, peach, and pear with hints of ginger spice and quince blossom. The palate is elegant, showing excellent fruit purity and drive, with flavours of white peach, nectarine, pear, and baking spice.
The Marsanne is sourced from the warm Marananga region in the Northern Grounds area of Barossa Valley, where soils are predominantly red-yellow brown loams over red clay. The Roussanne was sourced from the Kalimna region and the Viognier from a cooler site in the higher altitude Eden Valley region.
All varieties were gently pressed, combined with free run juice and cold settled. Fermentation commenced in stainless steel with some of the Marsanne and Viognier completing fermentation and maturation in oak. The remaining Marsanne and the Roussanne was aged on lees in tank until bottling, to enhance the structure and texture of the wine. 20% of the total blend was aged in fine-grain French oak for a total of 7 months, until bottling in early October.
John Duval Wines began with a single wine and grew over two decades to become one of the Barossa’s most celebrated producers. John Duval is the sixth generation of his family to grow grapes in South Australia but only the first to transition from grape growing to winemaking. He began his winemaking career at Penfolds in 1974. Here, he was mentored for 12 years by the legendary Max Schubert, creator of ‘Grange', one of Australia’s most coveted wines. In 1986, John was appointed Chief Winemaker at Penfolds, where he continued the ‘Grange’ legacy, making some of its most celebrated vintages, before leaving to found his own eponymous winery in 2003.
Rather than trying to emulate Penfolds, John has carved out his own expressive style which honours the Duval family history by working with growers with exceptional vineyards. These are wines with a sense of place that champion old Barossan vines. In 2016, John Duval Wines welcomed their next generation, as eldest son Tim joined the family wine business to work alongside his father.
John and Tim source fruit from long-time friends in the Barossa, whose low-yielding vines are aged from 50 to well over 100 years old. Showcasing the best of the region, their wines are made with minimal intervention and are characterised by an elegant purity that differs from the classic, rich Barossa style.
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