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Recommended Websites |
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| Balnaves - Australian Winery of the Year 2008 |
Most critics in Australia would agree that the two top producers of Cabernet Sauvignon in the country are Cullen in Margaret River and Balnaves in Coonawarra. Balnaves' position was recognised this year when James Halliday named them 'Winery of the Year' in his 2008 Guide.
The Balnaves family has been growing grapes since 1970, when there were more sheep than vines in the Coonawarra. Today, Doug, together with his son Pete and daughter Kirsty run the 50 hectare Balnaves vineyard and manage another 300 hectares for other growers in the heart of Coonawarra. All of their vineyards are situated on the famous 'terra rossa' soil.
Balnaves started bottling and selling their own wine in 1990. The quality of their fruit was always excellent, but they began their move to the top of the Coonawarra ladder in 1995 when they hired Pete Bissell as their winemaker and started work on their own winery. Bissell had made a great name for himself within the Australian wine industry by producing a range of trophy winning wines across the road at Wynn's, and his move to Balnaves enabled him to replicate this quality on a smaller scale.
The winery, which opened in time for the 1996 vintage, won two architectural awards for its stylish simplicity, but is more impressive for the way it has been planned from a winemaking point of view. The fermenters are all small, enabling Pete Bissell to select and ferment a number of small lots separately. This in turn gives him numerous blending components, which results in more layered and complex wines.
Balnaves is rare in Coonawarra, not only for the length of time the family has been there, but also for the fact that it is a 10,000 case winery in a region dominated by the 'corporates'. They stand out most of all however, for the stellar quality of their wines. |
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| Bodegas Santa Ana - Argentinean Wine Producer |
Bodegas Santa Ana is a leading Estate from the Cuyo region of Mendoza province, high in the Andes on the Western side of Argentina.
Founded in 1891 by Don Luis Tirasso, Santa Ana now boasts some of the finest vineyard sites in this area, where the natural thaw melt allows for vine growing without irrigation and the high altitudes naturally restrict yield, increase exposure and benefit from cool evening temperatures.
Bodegas Santa Ana has been producing wines for the international market for many years, honing and perfecting their particular philosophy of winemaking in order to satisfy the high demands of our 'internationally educated' consumers. Ripe, soft fruit is combined with an unmistakably Argentinean attitude, creating a guaranteed crowd pleasing range of exceptionally good value for money wines.
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| Clos de los Siete - Argentinean Wine Producer |
In 1998, the oenologist Michel Rolland and Jean-Michel Arcaute (a wine-grower, recently deceased) decided to go into business. The proposition involved Argentina - a country that offered space, the possibility to plant without restriction and the potential to produce a quality wine from fine soil at an excellent price.
Their arguments were strong enough to unite seven investors, who were themselves all wine-growers, to the remarkable viticulture project in the province of Mendoza: Catherine Péré-Vergé, owner of Château Monviel at Pomerol; Laurent Dassaut, owner at Saint-Emilion; Bertrand Otto, representative of La Compagnie Vinicole E. Rotschild; and Bertrand Cuvelier.
The new venture would be at Vistaflores, an estate covering 847 hectares of vineyards, in the commune of Tunuyan, a desert plain rapidly gaining international acclaim, located 80km south of the city of Mendoza. Divided into seven Bodegas, the group was named Clos de los Siete (Vineyard of the Seven) and is as ‘new world’ for the French as it’s possible to be!
Clos de los Siete represents the cutting edge of forward thinking Old World producers in the New World. |
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| Dean Hewitson Wines - Australian Wine Producer |
Dean Hewitson is unquestionably one of South Australia's leading winemakers of the moment, sourcing fruit from both the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale and through minimal intervention turning out some fantastic wines from his old dairy turned winery in Adelaide.
With a fantastic academic background and vintage experience at some of the world’s finest wineries Dean Hewitson has now a wide spectrum of ideas, practises, philosophies and experiments at his disposal and these are all reflected in the wines he makes. Dean’s easy-going and friendly nature have helped him build up strong longstanding relationships with growers that has allowed him to secure some incredible fruit, including a 70-year old shiraz vineyard in McLaren Vale and a 145-year old Mourvèdre vineyard in Barossa (that’s pre-phylloxera – likely to be the oldest Mourvèdre in the world!).
The word ‘refinement’ is not something you often encounter in Australian winemaking terms, yet in Hewitson’s case the word certainly has great meaning -these are likely to be the most French-like wines you will encounter leaving the shores of Australia at the moment. |
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| Dog Point Vineyards - New Zealand Wine Producer |
James Healy and Ivan Sutherland left Cloudy Bay in 2003 after many years service as winemaker and vineyard manager respectively, to make wine from Ivan’s Dog Point Vineyard.
The name Dog Point is derived from the scrub covered hill, overlooking the Wairau Plains, designated by the early European settlers as a place where shepherds’ dogs who had got lost, or wandered off, took refuge. They bred into a marauding pack which then attacked local flocks of sheep. Dog Point is also home to the unusual looking tree depicted on their wine labels and adopted as part of the estates logo. This is one of New Zealand’s cultural treasures the ‘ti kouka’, commonly known as the cabbage tree, an attractive, distinctive and hardy plant, native to New Zealand.
Fruit for the wines is sourced from selected vineyard plantings dating back to the late 1970's. These older well-established vines combined with low yields, hand harvesting, natural yeasts, lots of lees contact and a generally ‘low-tech’ approach are the key to the rapid success of these wines. |
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| Henschke - Exceptional Wines fron the Barossa Valley |
The Henschke family is one of the longest-established wine names in the Barossa. Johann Christian Henschke purchased land for a farm at Keyneton in 1861 and planted a small vineyard and orchard, and produced his first commercial vintage in 1868.
His son, Paul Gotthard, continued farming and winemaking and planted more vines to increase wine production. Upon his father's death in 1914, third-generation Paul Alfred took over the property and as demand for fortified wines grew, winemaking assumed greater significance.
Each generation built upon the reputation for quality, but it was fourth-generation Cyril Alfred Henschke who in 1958 created the wine that has most captured the red wine world's imagination - Hill of Grace. His first vintage of this Shiraz was produced in 1958.
Today, fifth-generation Stephen Henschke and his wife Prue uphold the family name and reputation, as winemaker and viticulturist respectively. The original two-storey cellar, built into the side of the hill in time for the 1868 vintage, has been added to throughout the generations. Now covered with ivy, the stone building retains an old-world charm with its open fermenters and winemaking memorabilia on display. |
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| Parker Estate - Australian Wine Producer |
The Parker Estate vineyard, situated on the rich Terra Rossa soil at the southern end of the famous Coonawarra region, was established in 1985. The man behind the estate, John Parker, had worked for many years within the wine industry before realising his dream to make seriously good wine of his own. It was his desire to produce a premium red wine from Australia’s premier red wine district, to rival those of the top châteaux in Bordeaux that culminated in the release of the 1988 “Terra Rossa First Growth” back in 1991.
Since that date the estate has gone on to achieve an unparalleled reputation for its integrity and consistently outstanding quality.
The vineyards at Parker Estate are planted predominately with Cabernet Sauvignon, with minor plantings of Merlot and Petit Verdot. Each vintage small quantities of the best fruit is selected for the Terra Rossa First Growth, however if in any one year the grapes do not reach the high standard set - the wine should have the potential to age gracefully for 15 years or more and also be able to withstand nearly two years in oak - then no Terra Rossa First Growth is made. |
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| Valentin Bianchi - Argentinean Wine Producer |
The Bianchi winery is situated 750m above sea level in San Rafael, about 240kms south of Mendoza city. Founded in 1928 by Valentin Bianchi - an Italian by descent - the estate which comprises of 350 hectares is now in the hands of his grandson and namesake Valentin.
Until recently a sleeping giant that was dependent largely upon its domestic market, Bianchi have undergone considerable transformation and modernisation in recent years. As befits a winery that has been around for almost 80 years, Bianchi is able to combine tradition with innovation throughout the range of wines it produces. |
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