Clandestine Vineyards Break Free 2022 Petit Blancs

Riesling, Pinot Gris & Gewurztraminer — because why pick just one?

The name is doing quite a lot of work here. Break Free. There it is on the label, bold as you like, practically daring you to have a second glass on a Tuesday. The thing is, once you understand the backstory, the name makes a sort of rebellious sense. Clandestine Vineyards is run by Nick and Trudy Stacy. Nick being a bloke who spent three decades in the wine game, founded a distribution business, sold it to LVMH and then bought a vineyard, which is either a very logical arc or a very expensive midlife crisis depending on how you look at it. Trudy, the CFO and the brains behind Break Free, wanted something different. Natural wines, no intervention, grapes allowed to be themselves.

The Petit Blancs is her flagship white, and it is precisely as bonkers and enjoyable as a blend of Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Gewurztraminer from the cool, clean air of Western Australia's Great Southern has any right to be. The fruit comes from single vineyard sites in the region. Cool enough to keep everything lively, remote enough that the vines presumably have no idea there's a natural wine revolution happening elsewhere. Wild yeast ferment, cold pressed, stainless steel, no filtration. The Gewurz gets a little skin contact, which is either a creative flourish or Trudy winding up the traditionalists. Possibly both.

Pour it and take a sniff before you taste it. There's kaffir lime, lychee, a bit of almond blossom, and something vaguely Alsatian going on. Provence via Perth, basically. The 2022 is Chenin Blanc dominant in some batches and Riesling led in others depending on the vintage's mood, which is rather the point. This wine doesn't have much interest in being predictable. On the palate it's dry, properly dry, with a bit of musk from the Gewurz, apple and pear in the middle, and a clean citrusy finish that keeps you reaching for the glass. There's texture here without being heavy. It's the sort of wine you can hand to someone who claims they "don't really like natural wine" and watch their face change expression.

Is it complex in the way that makes people furrow their brow and reach for the notepad? Not especially. But that isn't what it's going for. The Break Free Petit Blancs is trying to be genuinely enjoyable, a little unexpected, and well priced enough that you can drink most of the bottle without doing mental arithmetic about whether you can afford it. On all three counts, it succeeds rather well.

Drink it cold, drink it soon, and don't explain the grape varieties to whoever you're sharing it with until after the first glass. Let the wine do the talking.

The Wine Scoffer drinks on principle. No samples were solicited. Opinions are entirely their own. — Scoffermag.au

RRP $38

www.clandestinevineyards.com.au

WA | 2022 | Great Southern | 11.5%