MAAN Wines Nero D'Avola

This wine is ‘made’ to be bright, medium-bodied, delicious and is best consumed with friends and ‘la famiglia’.

• Grape: Nero D'Avola
• Region: McLaren Vale, South Australia
• Small-batch handmade wines
• Flavours: Raspberry, Fruit Tart, Dark Chocolate, Blueberry, Dark Cherry, Mulberry
• Colour: Beautiful ruby colour. Purplish hue. Really bright and youthful
• Aroma: Packed with red fruits on the nose. Tonnes of raspberry, mulberry, boysenberry and even blueberry. Countered by a touch of herbaceousness like fennel and thyme flowers.
• Winemakers notes: Nero d’avola is the lazy winemaker’s dream variety. It’s got so much natural acidity, nice tannin structure, and bright juicy fruit character that the biggest task we have is to make sure we don’t muck around with it too much and ruin the natural instincts inherent in the grape. We made the 2019 Hit MAAN with this in mind, so we kept it very simple. This wine was wild fermented in open fermenters, receiving two light pump-overs a day. The free-run was kept separate from the pressings (basket pressed to retain a lighter touch), with the free run fraction staying in tank until bottling to retain freshness and brightness. Whilst the pressings fraction (about 33%) which was a more tannic and “bigger” style, was aged in older barrels, to help soften some of the tannins and give a little spicy character. This was all combined prior to bottling.

About the winemaker

Cousins Anthony Neilson and Matt Anderson founded MAAN Wines in 2014, after many years of working in every corner of the wine world - as far away as St. Emilion in Bordeaux and the Santa Ynez Valley in California, and closer to home in Adelaide Hills, the Clare Valley and Margaret River. Settling in McLaren Vale, their focus is on producing small batch, handmade wines that showcase the best that the Vale has to offer. In the vineyard and winery things are kept as simple as possible. All fruit is basket-pressed, an old school method which ensures a soft press and treats the wine with a lot of finesse, then fermented with wild yeast and allowed only a touch of oak to retain freshness and fruit. The Rosé undergoes batonage, delivering mouthfeel and texture. Finally, all wines are bottled without fining or filtration.