Orange’s Cooks Lot has released two new flagship wines, the 2019 Cooks Lot ‘Iconique Barrique’ Chardonnay Rolledand 2019 Cooks Lot ‘Iconique Barrique’ R16R17 Pinot Noir.
One of Orange’s best-kept secrets, Cooks Lot is owned by former chef and winemaker Duncan Cook, and was established on the slopes of Mount Canobolas (Gaanha-Bula) in 2002.
After many years working as a chef at La Grillade in Crows Nest, Duncan enrolled at Charles Sturt University to study winemaking. Driving weekly from Sydney to Wagga Wagga for lectures, he eventually decided to fully commit to a career in wine. Initially working in Mudgee, where he has family, Duncan was drawn to cooler-climate varieties and began sourcing fruit from Orange in 2011.
In 2016, Duncan set out to create a new flagship wine, with Pinot Noir the natural choice. “It’s the one percenters that make the difference with these wines,” Duncan said. “We experimented with barrel fermenting red wines and saw the great depth and complexity it created.”
The process of barrel fermenting reds is highly labour-intensive. “You have to be half crazy to do it,” Duncan laughed. “It’s an enormous amount of work, and expensive, but the results speak for themselves. It’s gentler on the fruit than plunging, which can over-extract tannins. The result is softer tannins, beautiful secondary and charcuterie characters, and greater colour stability in the wine.”
Duncan believes Orange’s diversity is key to quality. “Orange isn’t like any other wine region in Australia. There are multiple sub-regions within it; grapes grown at 600 metres are completely different to those at 1000 metres,” he explained. The wines are crafted from small vineyard parcels sourced across this volcanic region. “There are some fantastic growers in Orange,” Duncan said. “Working with several of them gives me great flexibility in the winery. Combining higher-elevation fruit with grapes from lower sites adds complexity and balance to the finished wine.”
The 2019 Cooks Lot ‘Iconique Barrique’ R16R17 Pinot Noir was hand-picked and cold-soaked for three days before being micro-fermented in 900L rotating French barriques with a portion of whole bunches and wild yeast. The barrels were rotated nine times per day, followed by five days of post-ferment maceration. The wine was matured in 900L French oak barriques for 16 months. “This small batch was bottled unfiltered, serendipitously, when the filter kept clogging,” Duncan added.
The 2019 Cooks Lot ‘Iconique Barrique’ Chardonnay Rolled was whole-bunch pressed, with the free-run juice barrel-fermented on partial solids by wild yeast to build texture and complexity. The wine was matured in new toasted French oak puncheons for 24 months, with extended lees contact enhanced through modern barrel rolling.
2019 Cooks Lot ‘Iconique Barrique’ Rolled Chardonnay (Orange Region, NSW)
Harvested: 1 April 2019 | Yield: 7 T/H | Alcohol 13.0% | pH 3.33 | TA: 5.8 g/L | pH: 3.33
Trophy & Gold , Australian Highlands Wine Show 2021
2019 Cooks Lot ‘Iconique Barrique’ R16R17 Pinot Noir (Orange Region, NSW)
Harvest: 15 March 2019 | Yield: 6.5T/H | Alcohol 13.0% | TA: 6.4 | pH: 3.8
