It’s hard to believe eight years has passed since Brian Corser launched Tapanappa, his premium label that concentrates on ‘terroir wines’ from specific vineyards in South Australia. Croser found fame as owner and winemaker at Petaluma, one of Australia’s icon estates. In late 2001 Petaluma was taken over by the giant Lion Nathan group and within a year Croser had launched this new venture.
Croser’s partners in the business are Arnould d’Hautefeuille of Champagne Bollinger and Bordeaux’s Jean-Michel Cazes. Croser retained 50% of the Chardonnay fruit from his famous Tiers vineyard in Piccadilly, and the partners acquired a superb 30-year-old vineyard called ‘Whalebone’ in the region of Wrattonbully that is the source of most red wine grapes. Most recently, the Foggy Hill vineyard in the Fleurieu region, on the coast close to McLaren Vale, became the source of Pinot Noir for the label.
This tasting ran through some of Tapanappa’s wines that are currently on the market. All of these wines are produced in small quantities (just 900 cases of the Pinot for example) and just emphasised for me that Tapanappa continue to produce some of Australia’s most impressive wines.
