Paeroa Vineyard, McLaren Vale Matthew Brown

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  • Paeroa Vineyard, McLaren Vale

    Matthew Brown’s Paeroa Vineyard supplies fruit for his range of Dr Plonk and Fu Manchu wines as well as other makers with varieties both traditional and emerging. Tannat and montepulciano have joined stalwart red varieties, and have proven to thrive in the Mediterranean climate of McLaren Vale. His approach is built around organic practices and a regenerative mindset, with input from Richard Leask as a consultant viticulturist. The sustainable practices extend from increasing soil health and organic matter to reducing fossil fuel usage through solar power and reduced tractor passes, while weeds are removed and grasses kept down through both sheep grazing and manual slashing and cultivation. Brown has also taken the supply of grapes to small makers a step further by making winery space available to pursue their own interpretation of Paeroa fruit, which he grows to their individual specifications.

  • MMAD Vineyard

    The MMAD vineyard is a side project for the team behind Shaw + Smith and Tolpuddle, though it’s a significant side project at that, with nearly 20 hectares of vines in the Maslin sands of McLaren Vale’s Blewitt Springs and vines dating back to the 1930s. It’s a site that’s already seen a trio of celebrated premium releases – chenin blanc, grenache and shiraz – from the 2021 vintage, the same year the vineyard was acquired. And while the MMAD label has been swiftly accepted as though it has been around for a decade, vineyard manager Ben Jonas is taking a long-term view on continually enhancing the health of those heritage vines and planning for an even brighter future through a sustainable approach with organic certification on the horizon.

  • Longview Vineyard, Adelaide Hills

    The Longview Vineyard in Macclesfield is somewhat of an Adelaide Hills pioneer. Although it was planted in the late ’90s, a little later than the region’s early adopters, nebbiolo was notably planted alongside a brace of more traditional varieties. That was followed with barbera and Austria’s most important grape, grüner veltliner. Those varieties have proven to be well suited to the region, with Longview making leading examples under their own label, while they have also been a source of contract fruit for many other makers. That has proven to be a significant resource for those not blessed with their own vineyards, while it has also advanced the case for those varieties amongst vignerons and drinkers alike. With ten varieties planted, Longview deviates from tradition in the Adelaide Hills. With 8 hectares of nebbiolo alone, including seven different clones, the vineyard has become one of the most significant sites for this variety in Australia. Longview is also somewhat of a Hills tourist destination, with a day spa and accommodation joining the cellar door. Christopher Mein is the vineyard manager, who is constantly evolving his methods to improve vine and soil health with a focus on biodiversity and sustainability.

  • Koonara – Head Honcho Vineyard, Coonawarra

    Dru Reschke’s Koonara property includes a block of 30-year-old cabernet vines that go to making his flagship wine, with the site, and wine, aptly dubbed Head Honcho. Those vines turn out modest yields of tiny super-concentrated and pristinely healthy grapes. Reschke describes the site as having “zero pest and disease pressure” due to his nuanced regenerative agriculture that sees the vineyard filled with native flowers, beneficial wasps and kaleidoscopes of butterflies. His approach is focused on building organic matter, increasing water-holding capacity and sequestering carbon through an innovative approach that employs cutting-edge technology to assess nutrient and mineral density and vine health.

  • Kalleske – Johann Georg Vineyard, Barossa Valley

    The Kalleske family property, in the Barossa Valley subdistrict of Moppa, is one of great historical significance. Settled in 1853, the legacy is one of grazing, broadacre farming and grape-growing, with the oldest shiraz vines on the property some 148 years old – some of the country’s oldest. That 1.2-hectare vineyard of Ancestor vines carries the name of one of the property’s founders, Johann Georg, and it fittingly makes the Kalleske flagship wine of the same name. All the Kaelleske vineyards have been biodynamically certified for 25 years, with the celebrated eponymous wine label, made by Troy Kalleske, just on 21 years old this year. Kym Kalleske farms the vines, working with his parents and two brothers to ensure a rich family legacy will stretch long into the future through a focus on sustainability and regenerative agriculture.

  • Kaesler Vineyard, Barossa Valley

    The Kaesler Vineyard is in the heart of the Barossa, just outside the town of Nuriootpa. Originally planted in the late 19th century, since 1999 the old and ancient vines have been turning out premium and ultra-premium wines under the Kaesler label. The vineyard has been managed by Nigel van der Zande for over two decades, with his methods evolving down an increasingly sustainable and regenerative line, with a key focus on increasing carbon sequestration. Those processes have resulted in the fruit coming off the vineyard achieving desirable flavour and tannin ripeness at lower sugar levels, and the vines have demonstrated increased resilience in combatting extreme climatic conditions.

  • Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard

    Viticulturist Michael Lane is perhaps best known for his work at McLaren Vale’s Yangarra Vineyard, but he is having an equally important impact on the 67 hectares of vines in the Hickinbotham Vineyard, which sits in the Vale’s Clarendon subzone. That vineyard was first planted by Alan David Hickinbotham over 50 years ago, and has been a significant source of high-quality fruit to iconic wineries—although it was not until California’s Jackson Family bought the site that estate wines were released just over a decade ago. Those wines all sit in the premium category, from a shiraz though three blends based on traditional Bordeaux varieties and a flagship wine, ‘The Peake’, an homage to the Australian blend of cabernet and shiraz. The vineyard is organic, biodynamic, and Sustainable Winegrowing Australia certified.

  • Tapanappa – Foggy Hill Vineyard, Southern Fleurieu

    There are few people who have positively influenced the Australian wine industry as much as Brian Croser has, from instituting winery best practices to pioneering wine styles to education and the exploration of untested vineyard areas. One of those sites is in the elevated cool and wet maritime climate of the Fleurieu Peninsula, buffeted by the Southern Ocean and isolated from a wine-growing community and ready labour. But the Foggy Hill site is one that Croser thought would make exceptional, characterful pinot noir based on climate and soil data, that it would become a truly “distinguished site” to add to the Tapanappa roster.

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Tapanappa – Foggy Hill Vineyard, Southern Fleurieu

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