Silent Noise SGZ

An intro from the Noisemaker himself:

Hi I’m Charlie. Winemaker (and Noisemaker) at Silent Noise Wine.

The name Silent Noise was inspired by my upbringing. An upbringing that included a winery as a family home as well as a vineyard management business as neighbours. As you can imagine, this meant tractors, trucks, people, not to mention a lot of machinery constantly coming and going—particularly during vintage. All things that I adored as a young boy.

But my upbringing and love of all things ‘noise’, also taught me to appreciate silence. In particular, the silence created once a wine is in bottle and patiently awaiting being cracked opened. A point at which it will again explode into its own noise, on the nose and palate.

Though my love of wine started at a very young age—I was literally topping barrels and had my own ‘toddler’ sized hand plunger at age three—it’s really since graduating school that I’ve had the opportunity to work with producers outside the family business; developing and expanding my skills.

Locally, I’ve spent time with Gemtree Wines and Yangarra Estate, whilst my most recent vintages have been with Pikes at Clare Valley (producers of the best selling Australian Riesling two years running) and Chateaux Haut Bailly in Bordeaux, France. An experience which expanded my knowledge of new and old world wines.

But my overarching approach to winemaking is pretty simple. I like to treat the vineyard with the utmost respect. From the soil to the grape (including the vine). And, I firmly believe that excellent winemaking starts with outstanding fruit. I hope you agree.

The SGZ is all about the final blending of three McLaren Vale varieties; Shiraz, Grenache and Zinfandel. After careful consideration of the individual parcels of these wines that were available to Charlie he created this wine with thoughts of the contribution each variety would make to the resultant blend. 40% Shiraz, 20% Grenache and 40% Zinfandel was the magic formula.

This wine has definite purple vibes. From blackcurrants, preserved cherries, plums and dark red roses together with seductive notes of milk chocolate. The palate is blueberries, blackberries with the distinctive flavour of juniper sliding in. Milk chocolate and Rose Tea appear and the wine finishes with subtle silky fine delicate tannins.