|
|
|
The Casella family has been making wine in the Riverina since 1965
Filippo and Maria Casella emigrated to Australia bringing with them their know-how acquired through three generations of grape-growing and winemaking in Italy. Recognising the potential of the region, Filippo purchased a farm in the town of Yenda, New South Wales. After selling the grapes from his farm to local wineries, he decided in 1969 that it was time for a new generation to put its winemaking skills to use, and the winery was born.
|
|
For more than 170 years Wyndham Estate has set the benchmark for quality Australian wines, proudly wearing the title of 'industry pioneer' responsible for launching Australian wines onto the world stage
English immigrant George Wyndham began this most important page in Australia's winemaking history in 1828 when he planted his first vineyard at Dalwood, along the banks of the Hunter River, in New South Wales. Seven years later Dalwood Wines, as it was then known, released its first vintage to rave reviews and by the mid-1800s was exporting to England and India.
|
|
Warburn Estate's outstanding success has been achieved through it's expertise in traditional winemaking and innovative techniques
Warburn Estate is located near Griffith in New South Wales, in the centre of the large Riverina grape-growing and agricultural region. Warburn Estate is one of New South Wales most significant wine producers with more than 1000 hectares under vine, a crush capacity of 40,000 tonnes, tank storage for 35 million litres of wine and an annual turnover of $40 million. Warburn Estate proudly remains a private company, maintaining its winemaking independence with the ability to quickly respond to market demands and client needs. The company (formerly Riverina Wines Pty Ltd), is owned by the Sergi family, whose winemaking traditions began in Italy many years ago. Migrants Giuseppe and his son Antonio began to grow grapes on their farm and making wines for his family and friends using old barrels and hand made machinery. He would often sell bulk wine in 200 litre drums, a practice common in Italian cantinas, and would travel extensively throughout Australia to supply his customers.
|
|
The story of Tyrrell's Wines is inextricably linked to the story of wine in Australia
It is a story about pioneers, men and women who transformed the Hunter Valley of NSW, planted grapes there, and looked for better ways to make wine. English immigrant Edward Tyrrell planted his first vines in the Hunter Valley in 1858 establishing Tyrrell's Wines after receiving a land grant in apparently poor pastureland in the lee of the Hunter Valley's Brokenback range.
|
|
The Tulloch story began in 1843 when James Tulloch arrived in Australia from his homeland of Scotland
In 1895, Jame's grandson, John Younie Tulloch (J.Y. Tulloch) owned the Branxton General Store and accepted an unusual settlement for a debt owed to him - a 43 acre property in nearby Pokolbin. Tulloch took an immediate liking to the property and the five acres of neglected Shiraz vines it contained and undertook his first foray into viticulture and winemaking, which began the family tradition.
|
|
The Murphy Family migrated to Australia from Ireland in 1909 and were one of the first settlers to establish vineyards at Merbein 15km west of Mildura
The Murphys eventually moved to Trentham Cliffs in 1960 and re-developed one of the local properties which was once part of a large sheep station. Jack and Moya Murphy established their farm, which included plantings such as citrus, vegetables and grapes for fortified wines, and then later re-planted to specialize in varietal grapes. The vines flourished in the rich red loam over limestone soils, nurtured by water from the Murray River. The first vintage was produced in 1984, using only 6 tonnes of grapes.
|
|
Tempus Two is the culmination of Lisa McGuigan’s dream to create a successful, ultra - premium wine brand and tourism experience
Tempus Two is proudly, home to Roche Wines, Tempus Two Wines and Hunter Valley Wine Country's premier outdoor events. Events on the estate have included sell out concerts by Sir Elton John, sell out concerts with Rod Stewart, and a night with the world's greatest guitarist, Santana. KD Lang has appeared on the main stage, as well as a spectacular performance by Matchbox Twenty and Thirsty Merc.
|
|
Since 1851, The House of Seppelt has been at the forefront of Australian winemaking, consolidating a reputation for innovation and quality
From its beginnings in the Barossa Valley in 1851, Seppelt has pioneered vineyard plantings in regions of southern and eastern Australia. Constantly innovating, Seppelt is creating new wine styles, new packaging and new ideas that position this outstanding winery as a world leader. Seppelt's Great Western Winery is famous for The Drives (the labyrinthine catacombs of sparkling cellars) and home to the two champion Shiraz wines, St. Peters of Great Western, and the world-renowned Show Sparkling Shiraz.
|
|
Semillon from Australia’s Hunter Valley meets Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand's Marlborough, to create a blend offering the best of both worlds, a perfectly balanced wine with an appropriate name
Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc are considered a perfect match because one compliments the other, bringing all the desired flavours and complexity of a great wine together. Semillon adds the texture, body and richness to Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc offers the structure, raciness and backbone to Semillon. A cross-Tasman marriage of components, blended to create a wine offering the best of both worlds, makes a perfectly balanced drop with an appropriate name – See Saw.
|
|
Specialising in Chardonnay but also producing other traditional premium Hunter varieties, Scarborough has established itself as a leading wine brand
Scarborough has been producing its unique style of wines since 1987. The estate continues to be one of the few companies to be based exclusively around Hunter Valley wines, and have been awarded a 5-star rating by James Halliday for being an outstanding winery capable of producing wines of the highest calibre. Ian Scarborough specialises in Chardonnay, from the full-flavoured Yellow Label to the light, crisp Blue Label style, this varietal has become synonymous with Scarborough!
|
|
Right in the centre of the enchanting Shire of Nillumbik, at the western end of the Yarra Valley in the village of Kangaroo Ground you will find the Redbox Winery
Set on a property, named Wildfell by the first landholder in 1851, the Redbox Estate's fruit is gingerly tended and harvested to produce a fine range of wines. The Shire of Nillumbik is steeped in history and dotted with villages and towns, each with its own special magic. Names like Cottle's Bridge, Panton Hill, St Andrews, Hurstbridge and Wattle Glen all hinting of a culture brought to the region by the Scottish settlers in the early 1800s. The eight acre vineyard was originally planted to Riesling, Chardonnay and Cabernet in 1986. It's proximity to Melbourne and the rolling hills broken by dense stands of Red Box and other eucalypts makes it a haven for weekend visitors and wine tasters from all over.
|
|
Penfolds was founded by a young English doctor who migrated to one of his country's most distant colonies a century and a half ago
Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold was born in 1811, the youngest of 11 children. He studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, graduating in 1838. Like many doctors before and since, Dr Penfold had a firm belief in the medicinal value of wine. Before he left Britain he had obtained vine cuttings from the south of France and these were planted around the site of the modest stone cottage he built with his wife, Mary, at Magill on the outskirts of Adelaide in 1845. The couple called this house The Grange, after Mary's home in England.
|
|
The Oatley Wines story is of the legendary Oatley family themselves, supported by an outstanding group of extended family and friends
The Oatleys have played an important part in the Australian wine industry since their first vintage at Rosemount Estate in 1974. Those wines were the predecessors of many hundreds of highly awarded and recognised bottlings of fine Australian wine under the Oatley family direction. With the 2001 merger of Rosemount to Southcorp Wines and the subsequent sale of Southcorp to Foster’s in 2005, the Oatleys decided to re-enter the wine business. Logically they followed their calling back to the vineyard and established Oatley Wines, quickly gathering a team of extended family and friends to do the job.
|
|
Nugan Estate is a story of inspiration about a premium producer of estate grown wine based in Griffith New South Wales
The Nugan Group was founded in 1940 when a young Alfredo Nugan emigrated from Spain with his family to start a small fruit and vegetable packing operation in Griffith, New South Wales. Nugan's daughter in-law Michelle became responsible for the Group’s renaissance into one of Australia’s most successful agricultural enterprises. Looking beyond Australia’s shores, Nugan became the largest exporter of niche juice products to Asia in the Southern Hemisphere with production in excess of 70,000 tonne per annum.
|
|
McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant Estate nestled in the slopes of the Brokenback Range in the Hunter Valley was established in 1921 by legendary winemaker, Maurice O’Shea
The Griffith-based McWilliam family, already a famous Australian wine company, purchased a half share of the Estate and encouraged O’Shea to continue with his winemaking style and creations. McWilliam’s acquired the remaining share in 1941. It was with the McWilliam family’s financial backing O’Shea selected and purchased the Lovedale and Rosehill properties and planted them in 1946. O’Shea’s groundbreaking work has been kept alive by revered winemakers Brian Walsh and Phil Ryan. The fact that there have been just three Chief Winemakers at Mount Pleasant since 1921 has ensured consistency of wine style and quality.
|
|
McWilliam’s Wines is one of Australia’s largest and most highly regarded family-owned wine companies
Since 1877 when Samuel McWilliam planted his first vines at Corowa in New South Wales, successive generations of the McWilliam family have been pioneering the art of fine winemaking in Australia. Always innovative, McWilliam's has ensured its position at the forefront of Australian winemaking by introducing new production techniques and some of the world's most advanced technology in the company's wineries and vineyards.
|
|
McGuigan Wines is the culmination of the McGuigan family's involvement in the Australian wine industry for more than fifty years
Brian McGuigan is recognised as a trailblazer in viticulture, with world class vineyards utilising best viticultural practices. McGuigan was named Australian Wine Company of the Year at the 2003 Winestate Magazine Awards. The Award was given on the strength of McGuigan's wines in extensive tastings run by the magazine during the past 12 months. All the tastings are run 'blind', assuring that wine quality is the only measure.
|
|
The Mayfield Vineyard at Orange in New South Wales is one of the highest and coolest vineyards in Australia
The 100 hectare estate surrounds the historic homestead on the Icely Road leading to where gold was first discovered in Australia in 1851. The original school house on the estate now serves as a Cellar Door & restaurant specialising in local produce. The cool climate and low vigour soil induces an extended, gradual ripening period which allows the grapes to develop flavour and colour that translates into elegant wines of distinction. Reliable rainfall in late winter and spring provides a good start to the season giving way to drier ripening months of February, March and April. The grapes are harvested late March to early May. Degree day summation for October to April is 1309 degrees with an average of 1856 hours of sunshine. This makes Orange one of the sunniest cool climate regions in Australia and plays a major role in producing grapes and wine of distinct fruit flavours and colour.
|
|
Lake's Folly was the first new vineyard in the Hunter Valley last century, established by Max Lake and his family in 1963 and the first boutique winery in Australia
At the time of its establishment very little premium wine was drunk, there was no capital to invest, and Cabernet was an unproven grape for the area. Its name was almost a foregone conclusion and Lakes Folly was born!
|
|
Thomas Hardy left Devon in 1850 at the age of 20 and migrated to the new colony of South Australia
He established a winery on the banks of Adelaide's River Torrens in 1853. His Bankside winery was the start of an outstanding family wine business that grew to become one of the world's great wine companies. Thomas Hardy was a self-made man, a pioneer of immense character. With a mixture of energy, determination, shrewd judgment, innovation and a touch of daring, he pursued the highest standards in winemaking. At Bankside, and later at his McLaren Vale property Tintara, he focused on quality and craftsmanship. Tintara was to become the centre of Hardy's enterprise and by the late 1800s was one of the best-equipped and managed wineries in Australia. This success was substantially due to Hardy's initiatives in planting higher quality, lower yielding varieties rather than the coarser, heavier-yielding types more common at the time. His willingness to experiment with and to use novel equipment, much of which he designed and built himself, also contributed to this success.
|
|
Plant a six-inch nail in this soil, water it and in a year you will have a crowbar
So said John James McWilliam when he arrived in Hanwood in 1913. The development of the Riverina region as a major wine producing area was primarily due to the foresight of the McWilliam family. The Riverina, and Hanwood in particular, was an area John James McWilliam the son of McWilliam's founder, Samuel McWilliam had identified earlier as having the potential to service the growing domestic and export wine markets.
|
|
The Grove Estate was purchased in 1989 with the aim of producing premium cool climate wine grapes
The Grove Estate property already has had a long history of involvement with the wine and grape growing industry in the Hilltops Region as vines were originally planted on the property back in 1886. Situated on rich red volcanic soils at 500m above sea level, some of these ancient vines remain on the original parcels. In the last ten years, over 40 hectares of vines have been planted including the varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot, Zinfandel, Barbera, Sangiovese, Petit Verdot, Chardonnay and Semillon.
|
|
Early Harvest wine is the combination of fresh thinking, and winemaking skill that has resulted in new style of wine with an unexpected benefit.
Crafted using the first picked grapes of the season to create a new refreshing style of wine naturally lower in calories than other brands.
|
|
De Bortoli is an exciting, innovative family owned wine company, having enjoyed spectacular success throughout it's entire range of wines
The winemaking team is overseen by third generation winemaker Darren De Bortoli and his brother-in-law Steve Webber who is married to Leanne De Bortoli. The dynamic duo has been responsible for many winemaking innovations and developments. Darren De Bortoli is the creator of the world acclaimed Noble One. Steve Webber, recently awarded Gourmet Traveller WINE's 2007 Winemaker of the Year, established the Yarra Valley winery, the King Valley vineyards and oversees the Hunter Valley winery and vineyards.
|
|
Cumulus is the largest grape grower and winemaker in the Orange region, the premium high altitude wine growing area of New South Wales
Cumulus Wines was established in 2004 when Sydney based Assetinsure acquired the extensive vineyards and state-of-the-art winery from Reynolds Wines. World renowned winemaker Philip Shaw was appointed by Assetinsure to develop the new wine company focusing on cool climate, high-altitude varieties of exceptional quality. Since then, Philip has created exciting wines with innovative packaging, including extremely distinctive label designs.
|
|
Clonakilla is a small, family winery dedicated to making distinctive, handcrafted wines, they can be hard to find but are worth the search
Clonakilla was established in 1971 by John Kirk, a Canberra based research scientist. Of Irish descent, John came to Australia with his young family in 1968 to work with the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry. To his surprise despite the suitability of the environment there was no wine industry in the cool southern table lands of NSW around Canberra. To remedy this situation, in 1971 he bought a 44 acre farm near the village of Murrumbateman in New South Wales, 40 kilometres north of Canberra. The soil consisted of sandy clay loams over a friable clay subsoil and, with a climate not dissimilar to the Bordeaux region and Northern Rhone valley in France, he held high hopes for its wine producing potential.
|
|
Cleanskins
|
|
Welcome to Charles Sturt University Winery, a producer of premium varietal table wines in Wagga Wagga NSW, Australia
The CSU Winery is an integral part of Australia's leading wine and food science school and as such is at the forefront of viticultural practices and wine making techniques. The winery focuses on excellence, using state of the art technology without sacrificing tradition. It is seen as important that the winery reflect the same environment as other commercial Australian wineries, being market driven and producing the quality and styles of wine that obtain ready acceptance from discerning wine consumers in the open market place.
|
|
Established in 1970, Brokenwood Wines has evolved from a weekend venture for self-professed hobby winemakers into one of Australia's most reputable wine labels
Brokenwood was founded by a trio of Sydney-based solicitors, Tony Albert, John Beeston and James Halliday, who paid a then record price of $970 per acre for a 10-acre block in the foothills of the Brokenback Ranges. The original block - originally planned as a cricket ground for the local community was planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.
|
|
Australia's First Organic Vineyard
Botobolar's 22-hectare vineyard established in 1971 is Australia's oldest organic vineyard, the vines have always been grown organically without the use of pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers.
|
|
High on a hill overlooking the beautiful Hunter Valley.
A state-of-the-art winery. An imposing bell tower. Spacious tasting rooms. Magnificent cellars. Bimbadgen Estate. Dedicated to the art of wine. Bimbadgen Estate Winery is situated two hour's drive north-west of Sydney in the picturesque Hunter Valley, Australia's oldest premium wine producing region.
|
|
Bidgeebong's wines come from the south-west slopes of NSW, an area emerging as the source for some of Australia's most interesting and exciting premium and super-premium wines
The Bidgeebong Triangle encompasses three distinct districts, Tumbarumba in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, the Hilltops district centred on the town of Young, and the Murrumbidgee plain around Gundagai on the Hume Highway about half way between Sydney and Melbourne. The name Bidgeebong is a combination of Murrumbidgee and Billabong. The Murrumbidgee River is the lifeline of the region. Billabongs meaning places of still water in the Wiradjuri language, were the gathering or meeting places of the original owners of the area, the Wiradjuri tribe. The Wiradjuri occupied this land from time immemorial until Irish farmers established and named the first stations here in the 1800s.
|
|
McWilliam's Barwang Vineyard is situated along the southwest slopes of the Great Dividing Range, near Young in New South Wales, at an altitude of 520m
Hilltops enjoys adequate and reliable rainfall, with mild days and cool nights, allowing for the slow, even ripening of fruit. The region’s high altitude, cool prevailing winds from the Great Dividing Range which offset diurnal temperatures, and the high minerality of the soil are three significant elements which combine to make the Hilltops a distinctive wine producing region. A dry summer and autumn, with cool nights and mild days exacerbate the extended ripening period. Heavy snowfall and frost in winter are quite common; and whilst substantial rainfall occurs in the growing season, most falls in spring.
|
|
