Alexander Direen Heathcote Trousseau 2024

A new milestone for our friend Alex Croker of Little Brunswick Wine Co. and Tidy Town.

This wine marks the first release under Alex’s own name. The fruit is drawn from Downing Estate in central Heathcote, where the vineyard sits on the Cambrian greenstone formation that underpins the region’s most distinctive sites. It is a site shared with long-established producers such as Jasper Hill and Sanguine Estate, and carries the same imprint of iron-rich soils and naturally low-vigour vines, which produce characteristically concentrated fruit, something that this Trousseau should be very grateful for. 

In the glass, it moves between very dark fruit and savoury herbs and spices: blueberry and black currant sit alongside fruity pipe-tobacco, chocolate-coated almonds, cracked black pepper and a faint smokiness. A high proportion of whole-bunch fermentation and around 18 months in seasoned large-format French oak shape the structure, giving length and composure and softening tannin. 

Lithe and supple, very detailed, and exceedingly delicious.