Curlewis Winery Information

At Curlewis we endeavour to create highly concentrated, complex, food friendly wines. We try to learn from the thousand years of European experience with wine and food as a combination, not in isolation as is all too common in the New World. We absorb the wine-making styles of Burgundy and Rhone in particular, but set out to take advantage of our more consistent climate and some of the better new techniques to create wines of greater concentration and flavour ripeness yet still with the full length of palate that goes with ultra premium wines the world over. Success for us is a Grand Cru Burgundy drinker who buys our wine because in her opinion it almost reaches that quality at a tenth of the price. The winery was established in 1998 by Rainer Breit & Wendy Oliver with the first vintage produced that year. Owner's Stefano Marasco & Leesa Freyer say "the combination of the old vines, deep rich soil and the amazing palate of winemaker Rainer Breit, creates the unique and superior Pinot Noir wine of Curlewis. The winery produces their premium "Curlewis" brand and a second label called "Bellarine Selection. Their flagship award winning Reserve Pinot Noir retails at approximately $60 a bottle. In addition to the estate-grown grapes, Curlewis purchases grapes from several other growers in the Geelong region, on both the Bellarine Peninsula and the Bannockburn region. The different microclimates of these two sub-regions allow for different flavour characteristics, which when combined add to the complexity of Curlewis wines. Two ranges of wine are produced: Curlewis is the premium brand. These wines are handmade using traditional Burgundian winemaking techniques. They are fermented naturally on wild yeasts, matured in French oak and generally are not fined or filtered . They are complex and well-balanced even when young, but are designed to develop in the bottle and will cellar well for many years. The range consists of Chardonnay, Rose, Pinot Noir and Syrah (and occasionally Pinot Gris and Pinot Saignee). The ...