The Traveller's Selection

Fiano is a white Italian grape variety that is grown primarily in the Campania region of southern Italy and on the island of Sicily. It has been introduced to the Great Southern region in more recent years and the 2025 growing season delivered ideal conditions for this variety. Spring and summer offered consistent temperatures with very little rain, encouraging full ripe fruit flavours before a slightly early harvest.

The fiano fruit was picked at dawn on 5 March 2025. The fruit was sorted and gently pressed. The juice underwent a long and slow cold fermentation in a stainless-steel tank immediately after pressing to preserve the natural fruit characters. When the wine had completed its fermentation, it was racked off its lees. The purpose of this approach is to maintain the subtle textures and crisp finish. The wine was prepared for bottling in September 2025.

The 2025 vintage in the Great Southern was characterised by dry conditions over the growing season, ensuring the fruit developed slowly with good flavours. This wine is a blend of Mount Barker and Frankland River fruit, from vineyard sites that consistently produce a style of vermentino with great purity, lovely refreshing acidity and well-developed varietal flavours.

The vermentino grapes were picked and left on their skins for approximately eight hours before being pressed to a small stainless-steel tank. A long, slow, cold fermentation followed to preserve the delicate fruit characters. The wine was racked off its lees straight after fermentation to help retain its subtle texture and floral notes. It was bottled in July 2025.

This is an elegant, dry, Provence styled rosé produced from the Mediterranean varietal sangiovese. We have found the Mediterranean varietals to be well suited to this style of rosé where balancing fruit flavours, savouriness, natural acidity and colour are all important factors to producing premium rosé.

The sangiovese grapes were picked on 19 March 2025. The parcel of fruit was brought to the winery and gently destemmed and crushed directly into the press with approximately two hours of skin contact occurring prior to a gentle pressing.

The free run juice was handled oxidatively and remained on full solids for two days before rough racking and the introduction of an indigenous yeast to initiate fermentation, with 10% of the wine fermented in 3-year-old oak barrels. Following a slow and cool fermentation, the wine was rested on its lees for four months prior to final blending and preparation for bottling.

Also known as gamay noir, this variety is a cousin of pinot noir with its origins in France’s Beaujolais region in southern Burgundy. While often linked to the light, early-drinking style of Beaujolais Nouveau, gamay from top vineyard sites can produce wines with remarkable depth and finesse. In the Great Southern, the long, cool ripening season allows the grape to develop lovely varietal flavour while retaining fresh aromatics and bright acidity — the perfect foundation for crafting a lighter, dry, and elegantly styled wine, ideal to enjoy over the warmer months.

The fruit for this wine was handpicked on 26 February 2025 and underwent full carbonic maceration for 14 days. A small addition of fermenting juice (chardonnay) was included to protect the berries and initiate fermentation. After pressing, the wine completed its fermentation in barrel. Bottling took place on 31 July 2025.

This winemaking approach, inspired by traditional gamay techniques, was designed to capture the variety’s natural charm and vibrancy, while expressing the layered complexity and structure of its Great Southern terroir. It is a style which can be enjoyed lightly chilled.

Often described as the “Spanish pinot noir”, mencía originated in Portugal but found its true home in the north-west of Spain, where the majority of plantings are now found. Though a relative newcomer to Australia, first planted in McLaren Vale in 2011, small parcels have flourished in select sites, particularly across South Australia as well as a tiny planting in the Great Southern.

Mencía thrives in climates with warm days and cool nights, conditions that foster an elegant balance of vibrant aromatics, bright acidity, and flavour intensity. The fruit for this wine, from Franklands vineyard, enjoyed precisely these conditions. The site’s ironstone gravel soils lend a distinctive mineral edge — an expression of terroir which this variety is especially suited to.

Fruit was selectively harvested on 5 March 2024 to capture optimal freshness and flavour. A combination of whole-berry and partial whole-bunch fermentation brought aromatic lift and gentle tannin complexity. Extraction was carefully restrained to maintain purity, with minimal pump-overs and no heavy punchdowns. The wine was matured in older (one, two and three year old) barrels to add a smoothness without masking the variety’s natural floral brightness. The wine was bottled in February 2025, and has since rested in bottle to allow for full expression of the wine’s elements.

Five varieties of grapes are permitted in red Bordeaux wines: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, malbec and petit verdot. In Australia, cabernet sauvignon and merlot are a common blend to produce a Bordeaux-styled red, with merlot’s smoothness and fruit forward qualities helping to balance the high tannins of cabernet sauvignon.

The fruit parcels were picked and sorted between late February and early April 2024. The varietal parcels were cold soaked in small fermenters for two days before undergoing a gentle and extended maceration. This approach helped to soften the tannin profile of the cabernet sauvignon. The wine was then matured in 225L Bordeaux oak barriques (30% new) with the balance to aged Bordeaux barriques. The wine was matured in barrels for fourteen months before being prepared for final blending and bottling.

The Southern Rhône region of Châteauneuf du Pape is a significant wine region of the world and Singlefile’s Clément V is a salute to the role this “Avignon Pope” played in establishing the viticulture and wine style of this region. This wine is a blend of the classic Châteauneuf du Pape varieties of grenache, syrah (Rhône clones 877 and 470 originally from Hermitage) and mataro (also known as mourvèdre).

All three of these varieties are grown in the Donnelly River vineyard in Frankland River. The 2025 fruit was picked on 28 March, 2 April and 3 April 2025, with varietal batches kept separate throughout. The fruit was sorted and cold soaked in small fermenters for one day, before undergoing an extended and gentle maceration.

Approximately twenty five percent of the wine was matured in new oak barriques, the balance going to two- and three-year-old barriques for eleven months before the varietal blending, settling and preparation for bottling.