Established: 2021

Appellations: GI Tasmania, TAS

Proprietor: Justin Bubb and Anna Pooley

Winemakers: Justin Bubb and Anna Pooley

Wine Making Overview: A generally hands-off winemaking approach, with minimal added sulphur to facilitate wild-yeast ferments and natural malolactic conversions. Some whole-bunch inclusions for the red wines. Maturation in an assortment of vessels, including stainless steel, concrete ‘eggs’, older barrels and new French oak puncheons. All wines filtered, but bottled unfined.

Vineyard Area: 3 ha planted 24 yo vines (22 ha property)

Viticulture: Sustainable

Vineyards: Estate fruit from the White Kangaroo Road Vineyard. Additional fruit sourced from selected vineyards in the Coal River Valley and the East Coast of Tasmania.

Vine Density: 5 000 / ha

Average Production: 1 500 Dozen

Vegan Friendly: Yes

 

Bubb + Pooley is an exciting new wine venture created by the husband and wife winemaking team of Justin Bubb and Anna Pooley.

‘We have each been making wine across the globe for over 20 years. After living and working in Tasmania and making wine for a number of premium vineyards throughout the state, the time has come for us to release our own wines. We continue to work with our existing clients, so at this point in time you might say it’s a ‘side hustle’.

It's an opportunity to work with some exceptional vineyards and vignerons across the state and produce wines that connect with our philosophy of making wine from the ground up. All of our decisions are focussed on how we can do things better in order to minimise our impact on the environment. Sustainability threads through and underpins our approach to everything we do.

The use of concrete vessels is no experiment either - it’s a style of vessel that has been traditionally used for centuries in the Old World. We have chosen each shape specifically to enhance the texture of the varietal within them and these beautiful, hand crafted vessels will last lifetimes.’ Justin Bubb and Anna Pooley, January 2022.

WINE NOTES

Image Gallery

2023 Chardonnay - VERY limited
100 % Coal River Chardonnay from Marengo, Brinktop, Bremley and the Bubb + Pooley vineyard on White Kangaroo Road. The clonal mix is predominantly P96, with some I10V1. Fermented in one 1500 L concrete sphere (40 %) and a mixture of barriques (25 % new oak). NO malolactic conversion. Stylistically Justin and Anna see this vintage as more in tune with their goals of freshness and higher acidity. Bottled unfined, so vegan friendly.
13.0 % Alc/Vol; 0 g/L RS; 3.13 pH; Malic 3.37 (clearly no MLF!!)

2023 Riesling - VERY limited
100 % Coal River Riesling coming from the Winen Vineyard on White Kangaroo Rd (near the home vineyard for B+P) and from the limestone-based Pressing Matters Vineyard in Richmond, Coal River Valley. The fruit was hand picked and whole bunch pressed to tank, with the fermentation arrested at the optimum acid/sugar balance. The wine was racked to one 2000 L egg shaped concrete vessel for 5 months maturation on fine lees. Bottled un-fined, vegan friendly.
12.5 % Alc/Vol; 2 g/L RS; 3.05 pH; 9.23 g/L TA.

2023 Pinot Noir - due early 2024
100 % Coal River Pinot Noir from three vineyards in the Coal River Valley: the Bubb + Pooley vineyard on White Kangaroo Road, the Brinktop Vineyard in Sorell and Bremley vineyard near Campania. The fruit was hand picked and wild-yeast fermented with 20% whole bunches with 20-25 days on skins with pumping over once per day for minimal extraction. Matured for 10 months in a mix of concrete tulip (10%) and French oak puncheons (90%) with 25% new oak. Bottled un-fined, vegan friendly. 13.0 % Alc/Vol; 3.55 pH; 6.1 g/L TA.

2022 Syrah
93 % Syrah from 20 year-old vines in the Waterton Vineyard in the Tamar Valley (55 %) and the Marengo Vineyard on Middle Tea Tree Road in the Coal River Valley (38 %); 7 % Viognier from the Marengo Vineyard (6 year-old vines). The Syrah from both sites was destemmed, while the Viognier component was added as whole bunch. The wine spent 20 days on skins with minimal extraction. Matured in 35 % new French oak puncheons for 10 months. Bottled unfined, so vegan friendly. 12.8 % Alc/Vol; 3.6 pH; 6.2 g/L TA.

2022 WKR Vineyard Pinot Noir - VERY LIMITED NEW RELEASE
The first Single Vineyard release from the White Kangaroo Road Vineyard which was purchased in 2021. The vineyard was planted in 2000 to UC Davis Pinot Noir clones G5V15 (60 %) and D5V12 (40 %) on on own roots on sandy loams over clay. No herbicide was used for this vintage and the yield was 3 t/ha. Fermented with 20 % whole bunches and matured for 11 months in new Cavin French oak barriques (60 %) and one concrete tulip (40 %). Bottled filtered, un-fined. 210 dozen made.
There’s a notable brightness at play, with red fruits and florals meshed with subtly savoury spice notes. Sour cherries, tart raspberries, pomegranate, white pepper on fresh strawberry, with hints of rose petal, rhubarb, bergamot tea and a dusting of ground cassia. Youthful, the tannins are tight knit, fine but grippy, showing a subtle assertiveness allied with pleasingly cool acidity, an architecture that’s made to carry the flavours as they unfurl and complex with time. Overall, the feel has a sharp spotlight on fruit and place, with the winemaking hiding quietly in the wings, supporting, not intruding. With air, the wine fleshes out, with nervier elements fleshing up, tannins plumping, and the subtly fragrant kick of whole bunch lifting out spicier notes to frame the fruit. Anna Pooley

2022 Pinot Noir - SOLD OUT
100 % Coal River Pinot Noir from three vineyards in the Coal River Valley: the Brinktop Vineyard in Sorell, the Pressing Matters vineyard in Richmond and the Bubb + Pooley vineyard on White Kangaroo Road. The clonal mix is 115, MV6, 777 and 2051 (D5V12). The fruit was hand picked and wild-yeast fermented with 10% whole bunches over 25 days. Matured for 9 months in a mix of concrete (30%) and French oak puncheons (70%) with 20% new oak. Bottled unfined, vegan friendly. 13.1 % Alc/Vol; 3.69 pH; 5.75 g/L TA.

2022 Riesling - last cases
100 % Coal River Riesling from the limestone-based Pressing Matters Vineyard in Richmond, Coal River Valley. The fruit was hand picked and whole bunch pressed to tank, with the fermentation arrested at the optimum acid/sugar balance. The wine was racked to one 2000 L egg shaped concrete vessel for 6 months maturation on fine lees. Bottled unfined, vegan friendly. 12.5 % Alc/Vol; 6 g/L RS; 3.05 pH; 8.9 g/L TA.

2021 Vintage Sold Out

2021 Riesling
100 % Riesling from the Pressing Matters Vineyard in Richmond, Coal River Valley, harvested on 20 April 2021. Destemmed and fermented in a mix of stainless steel (40 %) and seasoned French oak puncheons (60 %), with the fermentation arrested at the optimum acid/sugar balance. Matured on fine lees for 6 months, bottled unfined on 26 November 2021. Vegan friendly. 13.2 % Alc/Vol; 2.5 g/l RS; 2.94 pH; 8.3 g/l TA.

’Pretty florals, like chamomile maybe, lemon zest, spiced apples. It’s juicy, and savoury with it, nuts and dried apple, a grapefruit tang and sourness, but glossy too, perfume, mint and apple on a long and chalky finish. Texture, power, fragrance. A bolder expression of Riesling, with some quinine -like bitterness to close. Excellent.’ 94 points, winefront.com, February 2022.

2021 Chardonnay
100 % Chardonnay from the Brinktop Vineyard in Sorell, Coal River Valley, hand-picked on 22 March 2021. Whole-bunch pressed and wild-yeast fermented in one spherical concrete vessel (unlined, acid cured) along with two one-year-old French oak barriques. Natural malolactic conversion, with no sulphur added until the spring of 2021. Bottled unfined on 20 January 2022. Vegan friendly. 13.0 % Alc/Vol; 0 g/l RS; 3.3 pH; 6.0 g/l TA.

2021 Pinot Noir
100 % Pinot Noir from two mixed-clone parcels of fruit. The first parcel from the Brinktop Vineyard in Sorell, Coal River Valley, hand-picked on 19 March and 23 March, 2021. Wild-yeast fermented, a mix of 100 % whole bunches and 100 % destemmed fruit. The second parcel from the Pressing Matters Vineyard in Richmond, Coal River Valley, hand-picked on 30 April 2021. Wild-yeast fermented with 20 % whole bunches. Both parcels kept on skins for 20 days with extraction via remontage (pump-over). Matured in one concrete ‘tulip’ (40 %) and French oak puncheons (60 %), of which 5 % were new. Natural malolactic conversion, bottled unfined on 20 January 2022. Vegan friendly. 13.5 % Alc/Vol; 3.6 pH; 5.3 g/l TA.

’Dark cherry, violet and dried rose, cinnamon, this earthy almost wasabi spiciness too. Its tight, but delivers dark cherry and dark raspberry in abundance, with a very specific and feetching slate/stony character, pure and cool in acidity, with a long ‘mineral’ finish. It delivers flavour, but there’s no excess here. Beautifully made. Classic Pinot Noir.’ 95+ points, winefront.com, February 2022.

2021 Syrah
100 % Syrah from the Milton Vineyard, near Swansea on Tasmania’s East Coast, hand-picked on 23 April 2021. Wild-yeast fermented with 15 % whole bunches and kept on skins for 15 days, with extraction via remontage (pump-over). Matured in 40 % new French-oak puncheons. Natural malolactic conversion, bottled unfined on 20 January 2022. Vegan friendly.
13.8 % Alc/Vol; 3.59 pH; 5.6 g/l TA.

’I’ve come around to Tasmanian Shiraz these days. You tend to get this ultra-clean ‘mineral’ acidity, kind of like Ardeche Syrah, which transmits flavour so well, with a cool purple thing happening. This is from the Milton vineyard, on the east coast of Tasmania. Boysenberry, blackcurrant, raspberry, lots of cracked black pepper, wheatgrass and herb, just a dash of spicy oak. Medium-bodied, so fresh and spicy, juicy pomegranate crunch to acidity, fine graphite tannin, cool and clear, with a long spicy and nutty finish. So much energy and character. Wonderful.’ 95 points, winefront.com, February 2022.