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Coonawarra graziers have access to the finest soils for viticulture. Doug Balnaves was born in the very heart of Coonawarra, quite near the sacred cricket pitch at Penola. An accomplished herdsman and shearer, Balnaves took up the challenge of planting vineyards in 1971. Working under the tutelage of legendary Coonawarra winemaker Bill Redman, Balnaves immersed himself in the culture of the vine, ultimately establishing a grande marque of Coonawarra and securing the inaugural presidency of the Coonawarra Vignerons Association. He remains a lifelong member of the Penola Pipe Band. For those who like their wines structured yet satin, powerful yet prettily perfumed, in the mouthfillingly muscular.. The old sheep shearer's shanty»
Established 1968 by Word War II flyer Egerton E.S Dennis, on ninety acres of McLaren Flat along the prestigious winegrowing terroirs at Kangarillla Road, the Dennis family pioneered the production of Mead alongside colleague and enthusiast John Maxwell. Dennis initially sold his harvests to some of Australia's most eminent brands before founding his own label in 1971,with the object of converting the high quality fruit into pure, estate made wines. Since establishment, Dennis Wines have collected hundreds of medals at national and international wine shows, twice claiming the revered Bushing King awards for best wine at the McLaren Vale Winemakers Exhibition. A quiet achiever of bespoke old vine Shiraz.. Dennis of kangarilla road»
Established 1973, Woodlands of Wilyabrup were one of the first vineyards in Margaret River, planted with a view to emulating the great growths of Bordeaux. Recipients of the highly prestigious Jack Mann Memorial Medal and Wine Industry Lifetime Achievement Award for their tremendous vintages of all things Cabernet. Assembling the rich Medoc style blends are what Woodlands do best. Painstakingly crafted by hand, to challenge the primacy of the illustrious Chateaux de la rive gauche, very few vineyards yield the quality of fruit that merits vintaging into a statuesque wine dominated by the prettily fragrant Cabernet Franc. Woodlands were established from the ground up with a view to achieving limited.. The complex bordeaux blend by one of margaret river's founding wineries»
Primo Estate
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Primo Estate
Primo Grilli planted his vineyard in 1973 a a spot 30 kilometres north of Adelaide within the rich fertile market gardening land of Virginia

Only 3 kilometres from the coast, Virginia enjoys the benefits of the cool sea breezes that sweep over the plains in the evenings. Primo built his vineyard with passion and understood completely the life of a vine. The grapes were grown to be turned into wine. His eldest son Joseph grew up with the vines tending them with the rest of the family. Joseph was to be a winemaker. It was not a conscious choice, not an expectation, just a progression, what he had to be. From his very first vintage, at age 20, Primo Estate's Joe Grilli wanted to create revolutionary wines. Ever since, Joe has been doing exactly that; creating some wonderfully dazzling and unconventional wines under the Joseph and Primo Estate labels.

Primo Estate

In 1979 Joseph completed his oenology course at Roseworthy Agricultural College and this coincided with the first vintage of Primo Estate. At this time the Australian wine industry was experiencing a renaissance and was leading the world with the new technology of winemaking. Joseph embraced these ideas. His dreams and passion, however, were the great wine styles of the world. He was consumed with his role as winemaker and from the outset used innovative techniques such as double pruning to make his wine.

"The vines were 6 years old when we started our first vintage. They were pretty dark times back then in the 70s. You couldn't give red wine away. People only wanted to drink riesling which, fortunately we had a fair bit of!" In 1981 Joseph made a wine that is the epitome of Primo Estate. He was enchanted with traditional German sweet whites and longed to make a similar style. A modern method was used to craft a luscious botrytis Riesling. The 1981 Primo Estate Beerenauslese was one of the first of its kind in Australia.

The success of this wine gave Joseph the confidence to experiment with other methods and non-traditional grape varieties. The Primo Estate la biondina is another success story. Harvesting of the Colombard grape is always eagerly awaited. The fermenting grapes produce heady smells in the winery, turning into a wine that is released young and fresh that almost jumps out of the glass.

Primo Estate

In 1987 Joseph with his wife Dina travelled the wine regions of France and Italy. They were taken with the magic of these countries and saw and tasted much of their beauty. They returned after many adventures full of enthusiasm to continue to create their own brand of magic. A new wine was introduced into their range. This time using a traditional Italian method to create a wine with modern breeding. The 1987 'Moda' Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot heralded a new label Joseph and a new beginning.

Working the vintage in Bordeaux Joe and Dina learned about attitude in wine making. What they discovered was considered equally as important as good soil, good climate and good grapes. Wine must, according to those Bordeaux winemakers, be made with serenity. This philosophy was driven home even further when the Grillis' worked two vintages in Italy a few years later. Primo Estate's Il Briccone (the rogue) is a medium weight blend of shiraz and sangiovese with small amounts of barbera and nebbiolo. "This wine has become a major project for us", enthused Joe. Even if people don't know anything about Italian reds I want them to be able to just drink it and enjoy, we want it to parallel our La Biondina, (the little blonde) -our colombard -I know people love drinking that whether they are a wine connoisseur or not."

Primo Estate also have a vineyard just out of Clarendon at Angel Gully. Clarendon is sandwiched between Adelaide and McLaren Vale in an area where you can hardly find any dirt on which to plant vineyards. It's a very hilly and a difficult viticultural area, cooler than McLaren Vale but not as cool as the Central Adelaide Hills. Does the life of the winemaker ever get monotonous? "Never! Each vintage is different - you never know what is going to happen. It's a great lifestyle", says Dina Grilli.

Primo Estate