Dr Frederick Kiel would take the trek by paddle steamer from Melbourne every summer during the late 1800s to spend his summers at Sorrento. His children established a grazing station nearby, on a property acquired from the Baillieu family along Portsea Ocean Beach, ultimately planted to vineyards in 2000. These are the most extreme western longitudes of Mornington, the undulating paddocks and sweeping views of tempestuous Bass Strait are a magical place for growing Burgundesque styles of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, well protected north facing parcels of propitious free draining limestone and calcareous sands. The windswept maritime vineyards of little Portsea Estate yield the quality of Mornington that have to be experienced...
Mornington's westernmost vineyards»
Henry Best was a highly industrious merchant and butcher who serviced Ararat miners during the Victorian gold rush. He planted thirty hectares of vine along Concongella Creek in 1866 and constructed a commercial cellar wineworks which continue to process the most spectacular vintages until the present day. The heirloom plantings of Henry Best remain productive, as some of the most historically significant rootstock in the world. Home of the Jimmy Watson 2012 Trophy, Royal Sydney 2013 Australian Wine Of Year, James Halliday 2014 Wine of Year, Distinguished and Outstanding Langtons Classifications. Remarkable for a style that's all their own, chiselled, brooding and black. Best's Great Western endures as one of the new world's most preeminent, yet bewilderingly soft spoken viticultural..
Carn the concongella cabernet»
The palate is refined and elegant, mouthfilling with plums and mulberry, black cherry fruits and long, persistent fine grained tannins. Robert Strangways Wigley was an eccentric South Australian cricketer who established Wirra Wirra in 1894... More»
Ripe blackberry fruit palate, currant and red cherry flavours, the savouryness of olive and tobacco. Mike Press knows about red wine, he learned his craft at Penfolds while working alongside the man who created the... More»
The palate displays vibrant rich plum and raspberry fruits infused with bitter chocolate and aniseed that fill the mouth. RSW is an acronym for Robert Strangways Wigley... More»
On the palate are pronounced red berry fruits, mineral and earth, leather, sap and a touch of spicy oak. The inaugural vintage at Picardy produced a single Pinot Noir... More»
The palate is mouth filling with rich satsuma plums and blackberry fruits, dark chocolate and aniseed. From time to time, Wirra Wirra produces wines from very small parcels of extremely intense, high quality fruit... More»
The palate rides on a wave of lively natural acid but is well supported by sweet soft gooseberries and grapefruit, a touch of passionfruit and leafy spice. Greg Trott, the man who nursed Wirra Wirra back to health and re-introduced the estate's noble wines to the world... More»
Jim Barry was a pioneer of the Australian wine industry, the first academically qualified winemaker to take up Clare Valley viticulture in 1949. He had an uncanny intuition for good land and established some of the most illustrious vineyards on the continent. Jim Barry is also a patriarch of the Coonawarra, in pursuit of the perfect terroir for Cabernet Sauvignon, he planted vines on the ancient Penola Cricket Oval, preserving the original pavilion for posterity. Jim Barry endures as one of the nation's most distinguished brands, renowned throughout the world of wine for decades of the most remarkable vintages, an evolving range of superior vineyard editions, defined by their penetrating fruit and seamless tannins, essential for every enthusiast of identifiably Australian, claret style Cabernet..
Salient statements from superior sites»
There were two scrub covered parcels of land, just outside Pokolbin village along McDonalds Road, that local council had long set aside for use as cricket ground and cemetery. Both were ultimately auctioned off to the highest bidders and sown to vine. A third undeveloped site became the subject of a long running feud among the new and old neighbours. Dodgy invoices between the rivals were exchanged and the division of firewood became a further cause of contention. A truce was eventually called by the two protagonists, Brokenwood and Hungerford Hill, for the sake of healthy viticulture. The nascent blocks achieved international renown as the eminent Cricket Pitch and the Langtons Listed Graveyard Vineyard, establishing Brokenwood as one of the most cherished marques in Hunter Valley wine...
Sociable soils make for healthy vine»