Pinot Noir

We make only small quantities each year, and all that we do in the vineyard and in the winery is designed to make the best wine that we can that (a) let's you know it's from the Adelaide Hills and (b) is enjoyable to drink with food and friends (which, let's face it, is what it is all about).

Give or take, this is how we go about things.  We identify the few best rows in the vineyard.  Wereduce the yields as low as we can go and do what we can during the growing season to make sure we grow quality fruit with intensity.  We hand pick.  Once at the winery, we destem most of the grapes to a small open fermenter, but we like to retain some whole bunches for added tannins and complexity. The wine is pressed and racked to French oak barriques, across a variety of ages and toastings, and then racked from barrel to barrel.  Our wine then spends about nine months in barrel and is bottled without fining.

Our 2013 displays a distinctively varietal nose, with strawberry, beetroot and hints of dried herbs. It has a soft and gentle palate but, as all good pinot should be, is mouth-filling with a gentle edge of late palate tannin. It will drink well now but with its excellent Adelaide Hills acidity the wine will, with time, develop the ‘forest floor’ notes that makes pinot with age such a delicious drink.  This is what Winefront say about our 2013 (giving it a rating of 91 points):  Touch of varnish and beetroot, ripe strawberry, spice, golden syrup – curious, but good to smell. Medium bodied, just nicely ripe and earthy, with plump strawberry and undergrowth, light tannin grip, fresh acidity and good length. No shortage of personality. Like this. Intriguing.

Chardonnay

Vintages 2009, 2010, 2012

We make our Chardonnay with the same attention to detail as our Pinot Noir.  We choose the very best grapes from the best sites on the vineyard, we hand-pick them and hand-sort them at the winery.

For 2013, , we reduced the yields significantly, then selected the best grapes from the best sites.  We whole-bunch pressed and fermented in the barrel. The wine was then racked off the lees to tank, heat and cold stabilised and gently filtered prior to bottling.  We have made what we believe will be a fine example of an Adelaide Hills chardonnay.  It has a lovely straw colour, and throws a complex but youthful nose, with notes of nectarine from the fruit and a blend of creamy, yeasty, nutty depth from maturation on lees in fine French oak.  Fresh, zesty, with a fine finish. 

Vinomofo descibe it as "beautiful" and go on to say this about our 2013 chardonnay: "Rich, textured and scrumptious notes of white peaches, grapefruits, nectarines and crushed cashews dominate the nose and palate with a smooth, spicy and creamy brioche finish. This is by no means a simple or standard single vineyard Chardonnay, it was hand picked from premium Adelaide Hills vineyards with low yields. You’ve got layers and white florals that will just drive you insane and have you drooling for a second (or in my case fourth) glass."