Commune of Buttons, 'Sable' Syrah Grenache 2023

60% Syrah, 40% Grenache

South Australia, Australia 

The vineyard is in Blewitt Springs at the southern end of the GI overlooking McLaren Flat to the south. There is only sand under foot here and this is seen for at least two meters into the subsoil. It is managed by Fiona Wood and contains 6 hectares of 80-year-old Syrah and Grenache vines. The Syrah and Grenache were hand harvested on the same day 6th of March 2023. The fruit was hand sorted and destemmed into 500 liter fermenters and chilled down for several days. The grapes were then transferred to a 2500 Jarrah (Eucalyptus) fermenter where fermentation took place over 3 weeks. The wine was aged in fiberglass tank for 10 months before bottling. Unfined and Unfiltered, 20ppm SO2 after malo. VEGAN.

Jasper Button, a second generation winegrowers from South Australia’s Basket Range, never really intended to make wine himself. A chef by training, he spent much of his life cooking throughout Europe and surfing, but found himself home among his family’s organically grown vines in 2013. There, a meeting with Anton van Klopper of Lucy Margaux who came to purchase some fruit gave Jasper and his sister Sophie the idea of taking a crack at making wine. Jasper partnered with van Klopper at the seminal restaurant the Summertown Aristologist and joined a loose affiliation of South Australian natural wine makers, including Jauma and Ochota Bottles. “We were playing around with grapes,” Jasper says. “I didn’t really know what to expect. We had 20-year-old vines, and I wanted to find success with those vines. I wanted to make something out of the property. I didn’t come back with an ambition of making wine at all; it wasn’t really about that; it was about finding an economic solution for a really lovely farm.”

The Commune of Buttons is a 28 ha farm named Fernglen, the majority of which is used for pasturage or other agriculture. The Commune part of the name comes from Jasper’s insistence that all wine is a collaborative effort – in conversation, he mentions working harvest with Justin Dutraive in Beaujolais and the sense of community and belonging he found there as days of work evolved into skill sharing, parties and late night conversations. The farm is surrounded by stringybark eucalyptus forests on all sides and consists of rolling hills with an average height of 350m. The soil at Fernglen is red clay with ironstone pebbles over sandstone bedrock. Key to Commune of Buttons, Jasper tells us, is the presence of several creeks on the property and the marked diurnal shift – despite the punishing heat, the wines maintain acidity, natural minerality and a crunchy bite to the reds that make them refreshing and easy to drink.

Jasper manages the vineyards via mulch applications, teas and biodynamic composts. In addition to his own fruit, Jasper sources a minute quantity from other growers, most notably Fiona Wood, who is the absolute local authority on Grenache. Although most of his methods are biodynamic, Jasper defines himself as a practical farmer, and one who anticipates problems before they start, rather than just planting based on the moon cycle. Chief among his methods is green regenerative pruning, which to Jasper is absolutely critical in setting the tone of a vineyard.” Pruning is just as important as looking after the soil. If it’s right, everything else follows that.”