The product of the ever restless Brian Croser, Tapanappa is Croser’s Australian project setup which was setup in partnership with the Cazes (of Chateau Lynch Bages) and the Bollinger families, soon after the sale of Petaluma in 2001.
There is much more to the story behind the Tapanappa name and the very apt vineyard names on the Tapanappa website. In truth, however, you probably don’t need to much information to fill in the back story, as Croser himself tends to bring the attention with him, and the Tapanappa project has already had plenty of airplay (in Australia at least).
What’s more interesting though is how much of a family project this really is: You have Brian Croser as the man behind the concept, but ably supported by his daughter Lucy Croser, the Business Manager of Tapanappa. Lucy is married to Xavier Bizot, of the extended Bollinger Family (and whom still sits on the Bollinger board) who is also the General Manager of Tapanappa.
Just to further enhance the family connections, the Tiers vineyard, source of the Chardonnay below, is still owned by Ann Croser, who divides the fruit between Tapanappa and Brian’s previous project, Petaluma (though this will resort to being all Tapanappa fruit in time).
It’s also an interesting collaboration, as it mirrors the old vs new investment pattern that has been repeated all over the wine world, yet has largely (with exceptions) skipped super high quality Australian wineries. It will be fascinating then to see what happens to this partnership in the longer term and see if is this sort of business model gains more traction in yrs to come.
Regardless, and perhaps thankfully, the wines are already full of character, with the utmost care and intention given to finding real quality terroirs and serious vineyards. All that remains now is the requsite time for it all to come together…
