Our Wines
Our terroir
Our commitment is to enabling you to experience our valley’s terroir when you taste and enjoy our wines. It is this natural connection – from our land to your wine glass, that we strive to share with you.
Terroir comes from the Latin terra meaning earth. Our terroir is the expression of a whole suite of factors. In essence it’s shaped by our ancient granitic soils, temperate climate, abundant wild yeasts, healthy ecosystems and sustainable practices.
We invite you to enjoy with us our hand-crafted wines. As you do so, you might like to consider the factors contributing to our terroir.
Geo-physical and biological factors associated with terroir
- Location: Latitude 36°S and Longitude 145°W.
- Topography: Gentle north facing slopes are at a 280 to 300 metre elevation
- Strathbogie Ranges soils: Ancient acidic soils are of granitic origin. Multi-layered, predominantly sandy loam top-soils overlay clay sub-soils.
- Mediterranean climate: Winters are cool and moist, while summer days are generally long and very warm, but followed by cooler nights. The length of the ripening season and number of sunshine hours give grapes the opportunity to develop full-fruit flavours. Seasonal variations make each vintage different in interesting ways.
- Healthy ecosystems and biodiversity corridors: The vineyards are surrounded by native flora bio-corridor networks. These are enhancing the wellbeing and vibrancy of the vines and restoring and sustaining healthy ecosystems, soil and water. An added joy is the way in which the bio-corridor networks are now attracting and supporting a great diversity of birds and other native creatures in the valley.
Viticultural and winemaking practices associated with terroir
The guiding principle for our viticulture is health – of vines, soil, water and ecosystems. The principle underpinning our wine-making is ‘maximum care but minimum interference’ . These sound practices and techniques result in structured, complex elegant wines that express the true flavours of the fruit varietals and of our terroir.
- Hand-tending: Vines are carefully tended by hand – one by one;
- Low yields: Cropping is kept at very low yields. This enables each individual vine to concentrate its energies on generating more intense and complex flavours across just a few berries.
- Oaks for the reds: All our reds enjoy a generous time either on French or American oak. It’s the winemaker’s decision as to which oak is used for the Estate reds, based on which he believes will best bring out natural flavours in a particular vintage. Reds remain on oak for up to 24 months while Reserve Shiraz luxuriates on French oak for several extra months. This helps give greater complexity and depth and to bring out the soft, subtle vanillin flavours still further.
