St Walter 2020: Black Muscat

St Walter is an Australian Wild Ale refermented with red wine grapes. It is named for Topher and his wife's first son and the Saint Walter was an 11th century monk from the Loire Valley in France and is the patron saint of vintners.
St Walter was made in a method we have come to adopt for wine grape beer refermentations. The fruit for this beer comes from an old plot of table grapes at Thornbrook Orchard in Nashdale, NSW. After being hand picked on 25 March, we put the fruit into a three week carbonic maceration before racking two barrels (1904 & 1736) of aged Gold onto the semi-fermenting fruit on 16 April 2020. The beer and grapes macerated and refermented together for just under three months. The grapey beer was then transferred off the fruit and washed with barrels 1863, 1601, 1712, 1605 and 1814 of aged Gold before bottling on 29 July 2020 and allowed to condition in bottle for 18 weeks before release.

At release, we see big aromatics of rosewater, turkish delight and sweet lolly. The palate is fresh but without the cloying flavours you would assume from these aromatics. Light grippiness with a fresh concord grape, vitis labrusca finish. Lots of energy and fruit in what is a very enjoyable beer to drink.