Yangarra Dinner w/ Winemaker Peter Fraser

University House Members and Guests are invited to enjoy a dinner with Peter Fraser, who was awarded 2016 winemaker of the year in the James Halliday Wine Companion Awards.

When it comes to winemaking philosophy, Peter believes it is about preserving the essential taste of the vineyard: he knows that intelligent viticulture is the key to creating great wines. To that end, Peter uses traditional winemaking methods including pre-soaks, indigenous yeast, open-top fermentations, hand punch downs, barrel fermentations, delestage (rack and return), and a variety of other labour-intensive techniques to create wines that are lush, balanced and specific to their terroir.

Benefactor of the Wine Companion Award, James Halliday, said that he 'could write 6 columns about Yangarra Estate and winemaker Peter Fraser and still have more to say'.

“I’m not interested in numbers on a piece of laboratory paper,” says Peter, “I’m interested in flavour.” This is where his winemaking starts. Striding up and down the vine rows on The Beach, the old wind-blown sand dune that is the back-bone of Yangarra. Tasting berries. Checking the dryness and flavours of their tannins, the crunchiness of their pips, the lusciousness of their sugars, the cleansing astringency of their acids. The balance of all these.