Travis Tausend ‘Handful’ Semillon 2018

Location: Australia, Adelaide Hills

Winemaker: Travis Tausend

Grapes: Semillon

Winemaking (from the Producer): Semillon is picked a couple of days after the berries start showing a pink blush within the flesh. The fruit is then de-stemmed and a portion of the berries are pressed and then poured over the others in a kind of pea soup like thing. 14 days on skins with us tasting 2 times a day and then the free run is syphoned off to barrels and the pressed juice is then settled in tank for ferment and elevage.

From Travis Tausend: The name for ‘Handful’ comes from the Nick Cave song ‘Love letter’. This is the 3rd year we have worked with this vineyard and we continue to see improvement in vines as we work the soils, plant mid-row cover crops and utilize sheep in the winter starting this coming year.”

I see winemaking as an art. The wines that I make have emotion, intuition and energy that has flowed through me at the time of making them. For this reason, the wines will always be different, not only due to vintage variations from year to year, but also the changes and growth within me as a winemaker and person. I hope you find as much pleasure in drinking them as I do in the making.

I am interested in the history of the land, the environmental flow, the cultural resonance and the spiritual weight that weave a narrative into the vineyard. With that history comes a responsibility to care for the land allowing future generations to find it in better condition than when we found it.

I keep this in mind when tending to the vines and am intrigued to learn more from the traditional and rightful custodians of this place, the Peramangk people. Immersing ourselves in an intimate history of our place can only help shape a unique understanding of our responsibility as carers for this land. This deep knowledge and knowing of place will help to inform how I tell this story through the medium of wine.

My history as a winemaker is short in practice but vast in learning and shaping of ideas. I have been involved in natural wine in some way since 2005. I have been moulding my opinion, my palate, perspective and an understanding of what makes me smile when I taste a wine. I bring all of that to every decision that is made in the growing and making of the wines.

I dearly hope that when the wines are opened they are surrounded by good humour, great conversation and fun. After all, that is what they are there for.