2025 Archives - Young Gun of Wine

Tumblong Hills

Gundagai is arguably Australia’s final viticultural frontier – our most recently gazetted wine region, and one whose potential remains to be fully explored. It’s fitting, then, that the vineyard leading its development is one helmed by an inveterate viticultural explorer – and is also one that is also on its own journey of redefinition, from a source of bulk shiraz for large producers to a model of soil health and sustainability which grows grapes for a roster of small independent makers. Tumblong Hills’ original 200 hectares of shiraz and cabernet vines are in the process of downsizing and conversion with an eye to a changing wine market – with fiano, chenin blanc, nebbiolo, nero d’avola, sangiovese, vermentino, pinot gris, xarel·lo, zibibbo, and even seed potatoes all set to play an important role in its future.

Tomich Wines Vineyard

The Tomich Family’s Woodside Vineyard’s story is one of remarkable resilience, innovation, and incremental improvement. Having lost around half of the vineyard in the 2019 Cudlee Creek bushfire, the Tomichs have since rebuilt – using the opportunity to update viticultural practices with the aim of growing ever-more precise expressions of the site’s unique micro-terroirs. The vineyard has also been the testing ground for the Tomichs’ own invention, the Vibrosoiler – a deep-ripping cultivator designed to minimise impact on established root systems. The sixty-four hectare vineyard grows pinot noir, pinot gris, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, grüner veltliner and gewürztraminer for the Tomichs’ own wine label, as well as Jack Tomich’s Cloudbreak label.

Tallavera Grove

Can you have the best of both worlds – the funky swagger of alternative varieties, matched with the soulful intensity of old vines? Jeremy O’Brien’s thoughtful rejuvenation and grafting work at Hunter Valley vineyard Tallavera Grove argues that you can, in fact, have it all. This thirty-two hectare vineyard, planted on a mosaic of different soils over limestone bedrock, is home to old vines of shiraz and semillon planted in 1971 – supplemented by new plantings and graft-overs of chardonnay, verdelho, fiano, vermentino, albariño, sagrantino, montepulciano, nero d’avola, petit verdot, muscat à petits grains rouges, tempranillo, and riesling, with the fruit supplying Hunter labels Briar Ridge, Carillion, and Pepper Tree. The end result is a vineyard that maintains its old-vine soul, while also being able to meet the changing demands of the consumer market and mitigate against a warming climate.

Mount View Estate

Mount View Estate is a vineyard steeped in Hunter Valley wine history. Established by famed viticulturist Dr. Harry Tulloch in 1971, who was attracted to the quality of its red basalt volcanic soils over limestone bedrock, it formerly served as an open-air laboratory for clonal trials. Since then it has transformed into a fully-fledged wine label, now under the direction of winemaker and viticulturist Scott Stephens. The approximately five hectares of shiraz, semillon, pinot noir, verdelho, and durif here are mostly old vines from Tulloch’s initial planting – but that doesn’t mean that vineyard management here is old-school. Instead, Mount View Estate is a case study in how older vineyards can be brought into the twenty-first century using the principles of sustainability and sensitive viticulture.

Krinklewood Vineyard

Krinklewood’s commitment to organic and biodynamic viticulture would be laudable in any of Australia’s wine regions – but in the humid and warm Hunter Valley, where downy mildew and grey rot can run amok, it’s nothing short of revolutionary. The label is also a pioneer of this form of winegrowing within the Hunter region, commencing conversion in 2002 – at a time when such ideas were at the fringe – and achieving ACO organic biodynamic in 2007. The vineyard currently comprises six and a half hectares of semillon, chardonnay, gewürztraminer and shiraz, stewarded by viticulturist Chris Martin.

Two Hands – Holy Grail Vineyard

The name of this vineyard tells its story: Two Hands’ ambition is for their Holy Grail Vineyard, located on Seppeltsfield’s iconic ‘Avenue of Hopes and Dreams’, to become nothing less than one of the Barossa’s all-time greatest. Planted to a combination of shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, grenache and mataro, with an impressive diversity of heirloom shiraz clones, this twenty-eight hectare vineyard is subdivided into twenty-two separate blocks – each with its own unique and considered combination of micro-climate, variety/clone, planting density, trellising system, and row orientation. Lead by viticulture manager Peter Raymond, the Two Hands team tends to Holy Grail with a combination of cutting-edge technology and meticulous planning in order to produce fruit for a diverse range of wine styles and price points – including one of the label’s crown jewels, the ‘Invenienda’ Shiraz Sur Échalas from Holy Grail’s Clos Block.

Hoffmann Family – Hundred of Belvedere Vineyard, Barossa Valley

The Hoffmann family are amongst the leading lights of Barossa winegrowing, with fruit from their vineyards going to a wide range of producers – from the cutting-edge ‘new wave’ (Sami-Odi, Agricola, Sigurd), to icons of the Parker Point era (Torbreck, Thorn-Clarke, Two Hands), through to the resolutely old-school (Rockford, Travis Earth). And while their vineyard holdings are scattered across twenty separate blocks in the northern reaches of the Barossa Valley, near Ebenezer, the spiritual core for the Hoffmanns is the seventy-two-hectare Hundred of Belvedere Vineyard – home not only to the ancient vines of the Dallwitz Block, but also the exciting young vines of the Mickan Block, as well as nine other parcels of vines. Each of these blocks is dialled in to produce fruit that suits the specific needs of the winemakers the Hoffmanns work with – an intricate dance between sites, grower, and makers.

Upper Tintara Vineyard, McLaren Vale

Few vineyards in Australia have the historical resonance of the Upper Tintara Vineyard. First planted in the 1860s by Australian winemaking pioneer A. C. Kelly, and acquired by the legendary Thomas Hardy in the 1870s, Tintara grew to become a household name in England in the late 1800s, expanding to encompass 283 hectares of vineyard land and housing a workforce of 360 people. While the trials and tribulations of history have contracted that original, ‘upper’ vineyard area – to distinguish it from the later-planted, lower half of the property – to 33 hectares of productive vines, the property has not left the Hardy family’s ownership. Current custodian Andrew Hardy, with the assistance of viticulturist Stuart Miller, now oversees the vineyard, which features shiraz vines planted in 1891, cinsault and cabernet sauvignon from 1947, and later plantings of cabernet franc, sauvignon blanc, shiraz, fiano, and grenache.

Tumblong Hills Simon Robertson