2025 By Fabiano Vermentino

95 pts
Delicious crunchy, salty Vermy with a Aussie/Italian accent.

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Sale price$34.00
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Description

Fabiano Minchella's on a mission to reshape McLaren Vale through a decidedly Southern Italian lens. After racking up more than twenty-two vintages across Australia, Europe, and Canada, his By Fabiano project is entirely focused on Mediterranean varieties grown on his family's estate, keeping the whole process tightly controlled from vine to glass.

For this Vermentino, the fruit comes off a small 2019 planting at the Stocks Hill vineyard along Tatachilla Road. The vines sit on a dark loam over a mix of clay and limestone, managed with the meticulous Simonit & Sirch pruning method to keep the canopy healthy and flavour profiles deeply focused.

After a hand-harvest in late February, the grapes were destemmed and given a 24-hour soak on skins to pull out some structural grip before pressing. The juice went through a cool thirteen-day ferment before spending ten and a half months resting on its fluffy lees - mostly in seasoned French oak hogsheads, with just seven per cent kept in stainless steel to preserve its snap. It was sent to glass unfined, producing a tiny run of exactly 850 bottles.

This release is a brilliantly taut, saline expression of the grape that trades simple fruitiness for genuine texture. Expect tart yuzu, crisp orchard fruit, and a briny, herbal edge, all wrapped around a chalky, pithy finish. It's the kind of coastal-leaning white that practically demands a plate of freshly shucked oysters.

95 points
"The ’24 bottling was a bit of a revelation, and this is a fine follow-up... a grapefruit pithiness moreishly sapid, with a positive, and classically Italian, bitter-almond finish. Excellent, again."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)

95 points - "Crushed and soaked for 24 hours, then cool ferment, followed by about 10 months in seasoned oak. The ’24 bottling was a bit of a revelation, and this is a fine follow-up. Citric with scents of apple blossom, sea spray, a grapey fruitfulness, coastal wildflowers, struck rock and oyster shell, a brininess. The alcohol here is modest, the palate lightly textural, the feel energised and vital, a grapefruit pithiness moreishly sapid, with a positive, and classically Italian, bitter-almond finish. Excellent, again." - Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)

Bright and expressive, it opens with lemon, golden apple and yellow grapefruit, layered with sea spray, and wild herbs. The palate is crisp and textural, with fine acidity, subtle savoury notes, and a gentle pithy grip.

Vineyard: Stocks Hill, Tatachilla Road McLaren Vale

Planted: 2019 (Grafted rootling on 140 Ruggeri)

Soil type: Dark loam over clay limestone mix.

Farming: Minimal Conventional.

Vineyard management: Simonit & Sirch Gyuot. Hand pruned, shoot & fruit thinned.

Picking date: February 21, 2025

Picking method: Hand harvested.

Processing: Destemmed, rollers opened for light crush. Sent straight to press.

Time on skins: 24 HOURS SOAKING PRIOR TO PRESS CYCLE

Pressing: Free run and light pressings combined.

Settling: Cold settled, racked with fluffy lees for extra texture and fuller body.

Fermentation: Cold fermentation at 14°C for 13 days

Aging vessel: 10.5 MONTHS IN 93% Seasoned French oak hogshead maturation with fermentation yeast lees giving complexity and fuller palate, 7% stainless steel maturation to retain varietal expression.

Filtration: Cellar bright

Fining: no

Alc: 12.3

Ph : 3.18

Ta : 8.4

So2: 40.8 free / 110 total

Bottled: February 13, 2026

Production: 850 bottles

Price Bracket $31 to $40
Type White
Body Light Bodied
Variety Vermentino
Country Australia
Region McLaren Vale
Australian State SA
Feature High Score
Reviewed By Halliday Wine Companion
Size 750ml
Vintage 2025
Closure DIAM Cork

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