Producer Overview:
On a brightly moonlit Tuesday evening at around eleven o'clock on the Barossa to Clare road, Dan Standish and Jaysen Collins are cruising their way to work the midnight shift for the last vintage of the century, in a beat-up old Toyota Corolla “The Brown Bullet”. During the drive home, they would often crave a soft slurpy wine to wash down a hard night's work. Out of this ideal they decided to join forces and make a Grenache based wine to be enjoyed whenever the mood takes hold. As such Massena Vineyards first wine “The Moonlight Run” was born. Dan and Jaysen have been mates since High School and have been producing Barossa wine since that initial vintage in 1999, concentrating on the traditional values and techniques which have made the wines of this region unique. They source their fruit from dedicated growers in the North Western Barossa areas of Greenock, Kalimna and Koonunga Hill, providing fruit from dry farmed, low yielding vines up to 120 years of age. While they work mostly with traditional Barossa varieties Shiraz, Grenache and Mataro from these growers, they also enjoy experimenting and trialling new varieties in the Barossa such as Petite Sirah, Barbera, Primitivo, Roussanne, Saperavi and Tannat. In true artisan style each vineyard section is kept separate during vinification and elevage, until the final blends are assembled.
Massena Moonlight Run
'The moonlight run' was the repetitive nightly drive from the Barossa to the Clare Valley that Dan Standish and Jaysen Collins would endure while working Harvest in 1999. During the drive home, they would often crave a soft slurpy wine to wash down a hard night's work. Out of this ideal they decided to make a Grenache based wine to be enjoyed whenever the mood takes hold and thus Moonlight Run and Massena were born. This blend of Grenache, Shiraz, Cinsaut and Mataro is crafted from vines that range in age from 45-120 years-old in the Greenock sub-district of the Barossa Valley. Yield are incredibly low at .25 tons per acre for the Cinsault & Mataro, 1 ton per acre for the grenache and Shiraz vines. Dan and Jaysen utilize traditional wine making techniques such as open fermentation and basket pressing. The wines were vinified and aged separately and then blended in tank 2 months before bottling.