RiverBank Estate showcasing lesser known drops at City Wine festival

FANCY a glass of vermentino, petit verdot, fiano or nero d’Avola?

These are some of the lesser known wines being made in the Swan Valley and new winemaker at RiverBank Estate, Digby Leddin, wants to convince consumers to give them a try.

After 20 years at Lamonts, Digby joined RiverBank under new ownership of the Lembo family, inheriting 11ha of vineyard with 13 varieties of grapes.

While the Swan Valley is known for producing and successfully promoting its verdelho and chenin blanc, Digby is keen to encourage customers to try some of the less well-known wines that flourish in the region.

To do that, RiverBank is participating in food and wine festivals for the very first time, making its debut with City Wine at the Perth Cultural Centre on June 8 and 9.

“Most of our sales are going to be through cellar door so we need to get out and meet the public, retailers and wholesalers, anyone we can,” Mr Leddin said..

RiverBank will be promoting new labels and lines released in September 2017: ‘On The Run’ and ‘Rebellious’. The names are based around the now defunct Riverbank Detention Centre next door to the winery at 126 Hamersley Road, Caversham.

With the RiverBank cellar door focusing on alternative varieties, Rebellious aims to showcase wines that are not quite mainstream like vermentino, fiano, nero d’Avola, and a new label may be soon in the works to cater to export demands for mainstream varieties like semillon sauvignon, shiraz and cabernet.

The Run will be offering a newly bottled sweet rose, a chardonnay semillon verdelho blend, a cabernet merlot blend and a non-vintage bubbles blend, while Rebellious includes a verdelho, a trophy-winning vermentino from Blackwood for Best WA Alternate White, and a top-selling rose blend made last year despite floods to 60 per cent of the vineyard.

City Wine will celebrate five years of bringing leading WA boutique wineries to the heart of Perth when the two-day festival runs at the Urban Orchard on June 8 and 9.

As well as wine, beverages from 27 stalls will include craft beer, cider and spirits and a sparkling drinks bar.

And for those who fancy a cocktail there will be a Mojito Bar. And vendors such as Yummy Rhum, Margaret River Distillery and Margaret River Pisco from Harmans Estate will also be whipping up cocktails.

Tapas style food will be available.

Three-piece band The Prefix will be part of the live music.

Tickets: at https://www.wineandfood.com.au/citywine

City Wine

June 8-9

Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre, James Street Mall, Perth

Friday, June 8: 4pm-10pm

Saturday, June 9, 2pm-9pm