Tapanappa is the 21st century chapter of an adventure that pioneered the modern era of the Adelaide Hills wine region. Founded by Brian Croser in 2002, Tapanappa’s vision is to produce fine wine from “Distinguished Sites” – single vineyards that give unique Australian “terroir” driven wines.
In a nutshell: Though Tapanappa is still relatively young, Brian’s 50-plus vintages and years of experience has enabled the establishment of three incredible vineyards. They all show a pure expression of noble varieties, grown on unique terroirs, utilising purposeful viticulture. Today Tapanappa is managed by husband and wife Xavier Bizot and Lucy Croser, the son in law and daughter of Brian and Ann with Brian still at the helm of winemaking and viticultural decision making.
The Croser family has invested significantly in the refinement of viticulture across all three of their sites. Croser was responsible for planting the first ever Chardonnay vines in the Adelaide Hills – Tiers Vineyard – in 1979. The other two vineyard sites are their Whalebone Vineyard, found in Wrattonbully and planted with Cabernet varieties in 1974, and the Foggy Hill Vineyard in the Southern Fleurieu planted with Pinot Noir from Dijon clones on rootstocks in 2003. Committed to terroir, the Croser family believes passionately in the identification of distinguished vineyard sites, matching the climate, soil and geology of the site to the right variety and then fastidiously managing the vineyard to maximise quality. The Single Vineyard wines are pure expressions of this philosophy.
The terroir: Tapanappa terroirs are a collection of three distinguished vineyard sites. The Tiers Vineyard in Piccadilly Valley is an almost perfect homoclime of Burgundy, mirroring the sites south of the Côtes de Beaune. The Whalebone vineyard in Wrattonbully sees Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz thrive on a ridge of Oligocene Limestone similar to St. Emilion in Bordeaux, but with a Terra Rossa top soil. The tiny 4 ha Foggy Hill vineyard on the highest point of the Fleurieu Peninsula planted across 67 million-year-old ferricrete/ sandstone with a cooler and more moderate climate, therefore ideal for growing Pinot Noir.
The Tapanappa ‘personality’: Each Tapanappa wine shows knowledge of climate, soils and geology which has informed the site selection for these grapes enabling them to produce unique Australian “terroir-driven” wines.
Foggy Hill Pinot Noir 2021
Category:
New World Wine