Wildflower Brewing & Blending - St Florence 2018: Sauvignon Blanc

St Florence is an Australian wild ale refermented with wine grapes. It is named for Topher and his wife's first daughter and released around Florence's birthday. The Saint Florence was a 7th century abbess from Cartagena, Spain. After a 3 week carbonic maceration, the bunches were drowned in a single 9 month old puncheon of our Lager Beer wort fermented only with our NSW culture. These two were blended together on 11 April 2018 and left together to co-ferment for nearly 3 months when on July 3 we blended in barrel #1777, an 8 month old barrel of a similar NSW culture fermented lager beer wort. It was packaged on the same day at 5.5% ABV and 0.01P (1.000 SG). We packaged just under 1,000 bottles of St Florence: Sauvignon Blanc. At release, this beer has a strong vinous nose with savvy characters of lemon citrus and grassy herbaceous complemented with yeasty, funky aged beer aromas. The front palate is dominated by citrus and melon. A phenolic grip provides a structural depth to the beer and helps integrate the strong influence of the fruit with the complexity of the aged beer. More complete than Florence ‘17 the ‘18 will reward those who allow it to continue to age in bottle.