Alkina is a new story on an old place. Our certified organic and biodynamic farm sits on the traditional lands of the Ngadjuri people and we seek to honour the land’s Indigenous history and to learn from their deep connection to country. We have 43 hectares of vines planted to Grenache, Shiraz, Mataro and Semillon, with the oldest vines dating from the 1950s.

Even though 2023 will generally go down as a cool, wet and challenging year, we’re delighted with the results. Freshness and purity are hallmarks of the vintage. Our healthy organic vineyard showed its resilience against mildew and other dangers and the late start to the season meant flavour and sugar ripeness dovetailed nicely. Most of our fruit came in over an intense 11 day period in late March before the weather turned cold and wet again.

Block 21 Mataro was the last fruit to enter the winery in 2023 and was picked on the 6th of April. This portion came from the
contour block planted in 2017. 4% of the fruit came from 0.55 ha of 1950s Mataro Block 3 on a mixture of schist and limestone. NASAA certified organic and biodynamic.

Block 21 Mataro was destemmed, with 90% fermented in concrete tulip and the remainder in 0.5T bins with gentle hand plunging for cap management. After two weeks on skins, the components were pressed together back to concrete for malolactic fermentation and maturation. After racking in October, block 21 Mataro was topped with 4% 1950s old vine Mataro from Block 3 before bottling in November.