The Clare Valley wine region is just over 100km north of the city of Adelaide and is one of the oldest wine producing regions in Australia. It is ideal for wine cultivation with long hot summer days and cool nights resulting in a Continental climate producing full flavoured wines.
Select: Reilly's Vineyard | Smyth's Vineyard | 1919 Block Bushvine Grenache | Stolen Block Vineyard | St Clare Vineyard
Reilly's Vineyard
Location: Leasingham/Mintaro
Varietals Grown: Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Viognier and Muscat
The fruit from Reilly's vineyard is used to create our premium wines from the Reilly's Range. The Shiraz fruit is used to create our Dry Land Shiraz as well as our Fortified Dry Land Shiraz while our winemaker uses Viognier and Muscat when blending our red wines.
These vines are dry grown and non-irrigated which means the only water they receive is natural rainfall. This ensures that the fruit they produce are small concentrated grapes that are full of flavour not full of water, and this is reflected in the full bodied wines that are produced from this fruit.
Smyth's Vineyard
Location: Watervale/Leasingham
Varietals Grown: Riesling - 43 years old, Cabernet Sauvignon - 34 years old, Shiraz, Semillon
The fruit from Smyth's vineyard is used to create our premium wines from the Reilly's Range.
1919 Block Bushvine Grenache Vineyard
Location: Leasingham
Average Vine Age: 90 years
Varietals Grown: Grenache
These vines were planted in 1919 by a soldier who had returned from WW1 and had been allocated this land by the government as part of the Soldier Settlement Scheme. This Scheme was introduced to repatriate and compensate returned servicemen by allocating parcels of agricultural land throughout Australia.
Being bushvines, they grow low to the ground and are not trellissed like many other grape varieties. The fruit is hand picked, not only to ensure only the premium fruit is used to make our wine, but also because the modern fruit picking machines cannot effectively collect the fruit from these old bushvines.
These vines are dry grown and non-irrigated which means the only water they receive is natural rainfall. This ensures that the fruit they produce are small concentrated grapes that are full of flavour not full of water, and this is reflected in the full bodied wines that are produced from this fruit.
Stolen Block Vineyard
Location: Watervale
Average Vine Age: Shiraz ~ 90 years, Riesling ~ 40 years
Varietals Grown: Shiraz and Riesling
The Stolen Block Story: One of the most prominent growers in the Clare Valley owned an 80 year old Shiraz vineyard in Watervale which had some exceptional fruit. This fruit has previously only been accessible to some of Australia's prestige wine brands.
Our winemaker, using his 'unique' negotiating tactics, waited one night until this particular grower had a few too many drinks under his belt. He challenged him to a game of pool with the rights to the legendary fruit as the prize.
The Stolen Block label atests to who won this challenge, because to this day, the grower still believes he was robbed!
These vines are dry grown and non-irrigated which means the only water they receive is natural rainfall. This ensures that the fruit they produce are small concentrated grapes that are full of flavour not full of water, and this is reflected in the full bodied wines that are produced from this fruit.
St Clare Vineyard
Location: Watervale
Average Vine Age: 10 years
Varietals Grown: Riesling, Semillon, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Sangiovese
Planted in 1999, the St Clare Vineyard is predominantly used for creating our Barking Mad range of wines. They are young vines in comparison to our other vineyards however the climate and soil in the region enhance the fruit that is produced ensuring it is the highest quality.
Learn more about the Clare Valley wine region...
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