We have recently released our 2025 vintage Orange Region Cooks Lot ‘Handpicked’ Chardonnay ($35) and Pinot Noir ($35).

Hand harvesting, whilst more labour-intensive, is definitely more selective. Our vintage team take a great deal of care working their way through the vineyard, picking each bunch by hand, carefully selecting the best and leaving those bunches that may be damaged or not quite ripe. The result is a higher degree of flavour concentration and balance in the finished wines. It is more expensive, but years of experience have shown the quality speaks for itself.

In the winery, our ‘Handpicked’ wines are crafted with complexity in mind. The wines see more new oak and extended maturation. The objective is to produce wines that showcase the region’s fruit purity, with greater depth, length, texture, and complexity upon release, while also offering longevity in the cellar.

We aim to create a more layered palate, enhanced structure, and a higher level of refinement than the ‘Allotment’ range. 

After many years in the kitchen championing fresh produce and proteins, winemaking shares many aspects. My underlying challenge is to hero the variety and the region with the finished wine. Using various winemaking techniques, including barrel selection and maturation time, should create the pedestal and hone the focus that ensures they shine.”

The 2025 Cooks Lot ‘Handpicked’ Chardonnay is barrel fermented with partial solids to build complexity and texture, balancing the lovely concentration and varietal expression of the Orange Region fruit. It is aged on its lees, with regular stirring, in a combination of new and one-year-old French oak barriques.

The 2025 Cooks Lot ‘Handpicked’ Pinot Noir is made from a combination of MV6 and 777 clones grown in vineyards sitting at an average elevation above 900m.

The Pinot Noir was fermented in small open fermenters, with a small component as whole bunches, by wild yeast and gently hand plunged four times a day. This is gentle on the skins, while building complexity and flavour extraction. It also allows us to carefully monitor the ferment.

The free-run juice and pressings were barrelled separately and matured in tightly grained French oak puncheons for 12 months, prior to blending and bottling.