2025 Shy Susan Gewurztraminer

“Shy Susan (Tetratheca gunnii) is a critically endangered Australian wildflower. Her survival depends completely on a little native bee, who alone is capable of pollination. Their fate is forever entwined”.

After working with Tasmanian fruit for nearly two decades Glenn James with his wife, Jo Marsh began crafting wines under their newly created Shy Susan label in 2015. The couple lived in Porepunkah in the Alpine Valleys region and Glenn commuted to Tasmania weekly for his role as Chief Winemaker at Winemaking Tasmania. When Jo fell pregnant in late 2019 Glenn made the decision to leave his role and work fulltime with Jo in the Alpine Valleys. Having many years to experience the quality of fruit the Alpine Valleys had to offer they decided to continue the Shy Susan brand with local fruit. Select small parcels of fruit are crafted to reflect variety, vineyard and the stylistic approach forged from Glenn’s skill and experience.

Billy Button recently expanded into vineyard management taking on the Rosewhite vineyard in Happy Valley (previously known as the Souter’s Vineyard). Production is kept low to optimise fruit intensity. An exceptional year for whites in the region, this second release of Gewurztraminer under the Shy Susan label is candidly varietal with punchy aromatics and dense flavours. 

Vintage Snapshot

2025 was a tale of two vintages. Harvested in mid-February, this fruit was picked ahead of the heat, ripening through a period of clear days and cool nights. These conditions preserved freshness and incredible varietal purity producing a wine with clarity and depth.

Production Notes

Coming in at just over 600kg, this tiny parcel was handpicked; foot stomped in a picking bin and refrigerated for extended skin contact to extract extra flavour from the skins before basket pressing to a seasoned oak, where it was fermented with indigenous yeast. Clarified and bottled June 2025.

Technical details

Reviews

"A true gewürztraminer believer is obviously in charge here – what a beauty! Delicate, fragrant, enticing and texturally inviting, this young wine reveals a serious, deep quality of scent and flavour, highlighting lychee, rosewater, white flowers, citrus and hints of spice and ginger biscuits. Captures the ripeness without sacrificing the freshness, the textural warmth without diminishing the purity of fruit expression." Awarded 95 points, Halliday Wine Companion, Jeni Port - Published 20 August 2026