Freeman Rondinella and Corvina ‘Secco’ Cellar Release 2007

Freeman Vineyards is a boutique family-owned winery in the Hilltops region of New South Wales, renowned for its Italian-inspired wines and pioneering spirit. Founded in 1999 by Dr. Brian Freeman, a former head of wine science at Charles Sturt University. Brian transitioned from academia to winemaking, bringing deep viticultural expertise to the Hilltops region. Situated in Prunevale, Hilltops, at 560 metres above sea level, the vineyard benefits from cool nights and sunny days during ripening, deep granite soils mixed with red silt, sand from central Australia and well-drained terrain, ideal for growing high-quality grapes.

Freeman Vineyards is Australia’s only producer of the northern Italian grape varieties Rondinella and Corvina, used in their flagship Secco. Other Italian varietals include Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Aleatico, Prosecco, Fiano, Pinot Grigio, and an obscure varietal for Australia, Furmint. Their priority is well crafted wines with a focus on textural complexity, balance, and food-friendliness.

Dr Brian Freeman spent much of his life in research and education, in the latter with a role as head of CSU’s viticulture and oenology campus. In ’04 he purchased the neighbouring 30yo Demondrille vineyard, renamed Altura vineyard. He has since acquired several other vineyards within a 10km radius, all adding to the original Hilltops estate. In all, he has 27 varieties that range from staples such as shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, semillon and riesling through to more exotic varieties such as furmint and Italian varieties prosecco, pinot grigio, sangiovese, nebbiolo, rondinella and corvina. -JAMES HALLIDAY

The philosophy is to develop a wine style reminiscent of the traditional Italian Amarone and Ripasso red wines that are complex and savoury while also retaining characteristic fruit-driven flavour. True to Italian tradition a portion of the grapes are dried – conveniently in a neighbour’s solar-powered prune dehydrator – and added to the fresh grapes during fermentation. Subsequently, the wine is aged two years in selected old oak barrels to mature the wine rather than impart oak flavour. It is bottle aged for an additional two years before release.

A selection of rondinella and corvina varieties were dried slowly for up to 10 days, the desiccated grapes added to the remaining harvest for fermentation. The young intense tannin wines were aged separately in old oak barrels for two years.

THE REAL REVIEW

Freeman Rondinella and Corvina ‘Secco’ Cellar Release 2007 – 95 / 100 Points

Deep, dark red colour with black tints and no real purple remaining.
The bouquet has some of the bitter Italian herb notes of the 2016 Freeman Corvina Rondinella, but is more evolved and more complex. The wine is full-bodied and very firm on the palate, with lashings of tannin, and the vermouth or bitter herb notes run right throughout the wine. An unusual wine which needs to be judged on its own merits as it has no peers in Australian wine. It makes more sense with hearty food than on its own. A high quality wine. The bottle tasted in October was apparently not a representative sample”Gold medal and Top 50, 2018 NSW Wine Awards.