Before and After
When you get caught up in day to day life, it’s easy to forget how much we’ve achieved in a relatively short time.
Looking back at the photos of our property when we first purchased it in 2006, when it was sheep grazing land, compared with where we are at today, you can’t help but feel proud.
20/06/2019 at 3:12 PM
Permalink
The Red Series - Ballarat
The Red Series puts Western Victoria’s finest wines on show during the Ballarat Winter Festival.
Ballarat will host Western Victoria’s top winemakers and their best wines at The Red Series on July 27 from 1pm – 6pm.
The event, which showcases the Grampians and Pyrenees regions’ finest red wines along with other varietals, is expected to draw a crowd to Ballarat.
The Red Series is a gathering of the very best cellar doors from the Pyrenees and Grampians wine regions, in the one ambient heated indoor space the Mining Exchange, right in the heart of Ballarat and a two minute walk from the train station.
Red Series event-goers will have the opportunity to taste and purchase Shiraz and other wine varieties from 20 wineries.
The Grampians and Pyrenees wine regions, situated on Ballarat’s doorstep, are renowned for more than 150 years of winemaking history, spectacular landscapes, award-winning wines and extremely talented, but down-to-earth winemakers.
The lne-up for 2019 includes:
From the Pyrenees region:
- Dogrock Degraves Road Vineyard
- Blue Pyrenees Estate
- Wimmera Hills Winery
- Dalwhinnie Winery
- Summerfield Winery and Accommodation
- Glenlofty Estate Wines
- Amherst Winery
- Sally's Paddock (Redbank Winery)
- Taltarni Vineyards
- Peerick Wines
And from the Grampians region:
- Grampians Estate
- Clarnette and Ludvigsen wines
- Seppelt Wines
- Mount Langi Ghiran
- A.T. Richardson Wines
- Montara Wines
- Pomonal Estate
- Mountainside Wines
- Fallen Giants Vineyard
- Best's Wines - Great Western
Wine lovers, you do not want miss out on this event! There will be something for everyone including cheese, produce and music entertainment.
Early bird tickets $35 until the 26th July | Price includes souvenir glass and a 6 bottle cloth bag.
Tickets on the door $40 | The Red Series brought to you by Ballarat Volkswagen
20/06/2019 at 2:41 PM
Permalink
Mule Variation is "Completely Gorgeous"
“A completely gorgeous nose with dark cherry, pepper, spice, liquorice and clove. The palate is cool and composed with an excellent supple core of dark fruit and bold framing tannin. Beautifully medium-bodied with good savouriness on the close.”
Thanks to the delightful Toni Paterson for the lovely words on our Mule Variation on The Real Review.
13/06/2019 at 3:07 PM
Permalink
Gourmet Traveller WINE Star Cellar Door Award 2019
We feel so proud to have received this amazing accolade so soon after opening our humble cellar door.
Thanks Gourmet Traveller WINE!
07/06/2019 at 2:53 PM
Permalink
Chockstone Riesling #1!
#1 2018 Victorian Riesling by Huon Hooke, our 2018 Chockstone Riesling is in Huon’s words “gorgeous”.
95 Points – “Light yellow hue with a dried herb, creamy yeast and dried wildflower bouquet. It's a lovely nose. The palate is likewise attractive, not bone-dry but slightly juicy, with crisp acidity drying the after-palate, the follow-through satisfyingly fruity and harmonious. A gorgeous Riesling.”
01/06/2019 at 3:00 PM
Permalink
2019 Vintage Report
Winemakers live for the vintage season. It’s an exciting, stressful, fun and exhausting experience, but it is the one chance a year when we can focus on nothing else but creating our wines. Mother Nature always adds some twists and turns to every vintage, and this season was no exception. What was looking like a nice relaxed on-schedule harvest was thrown to the wind with a two-week heat spell in late Feb/early March just after we picked our Pinot Gris.
Although we normally wouldn’t pick fruit during a heat spells if we can avoid it (I prefer to pick cool grapes), the Chockstone Riesling happened to hit perfect ripeness in the midst of the heatwave, and rather than wait for cooler weather I decided to pick it immediately. So, as you can imagine, it was a great relief to see it come off in perfect condition and with a great balance of acid and flavour. I think the slightly-stressed vines were as happy as me to have the fruit safely picked and in tank.
The white ferments, the Gris and the Riesling, finished in the last week of March and are currently going through the slow process of settling. They look great, wonderfully crisp with a subtle yet aromatic palate. Tasting cool wines from tank is one sure-fire way to forget that hot spell!
Reds always come later as they require more sunshine hours for the flavours to fully develop and for the Baume (sugar), acid and tannin levels to reach my preferred balance, and this doesn’t always happen in the whole vineyard all at once.
I split the Chockstone Shiraz harvest into two parts, the earlier pick from the top more exposed part of the block was harvested just after the Riesling, about two weeks early and came in ripe, rich and showing lots of blackberry and pepper characters. The second half of the block was picked 10 days later and shows a remarkable liquorice and dark chocolate character. Two distinct halves of what looks like one of our best Chockstone Shiraz blends.
We pressed off the last of the Chockstone Shiraz ferments at the end of March, before they commenced their malolactic fermentations (the process where malic acid is converted to the softer lactic acid, which lends a roundness to the wine), and then eventual transfer to barrels for maturation.
The grapes off the Hard Hill Road Close-Planted Shiraz vines were the next to come off, all hand-picked over two days last weekend. The last varieties to be picked, as always, are the Nebbiolo and Tannat, and they will likely be picked this weekend or early next week. Once harvested, they will make up the last of the fruit in our unique blends, The Field and Mule Variation.
The Field is a new blend made up of each of the varieties on our Hard Hill Road vineyard and their percentage of vineyard acreage is their percentage of fruit in the blend: Shiraz 52%, Riesling 22%, Nebbiolo 10%, Durif 9%, Tannat 5% and Viognier 2%. These grapes are fermented in an open-top fermenter with the various grapes being added as they are picked, creating a vintage-long fermentation and a fascinating wine.
The Mule on the other hand is a blend of our most enigmatic red varieties: Nebbiolo, Tannat, Durif, and Shiraz. I carefully handle these big-tannin varieties to keep them soft, supple and under control. I’m aiming for a wine that has a seamless flow between its complex structure and refined fruit flavours.
Overall our yields, while always low (not usually more than five tonnes per hectare), were about on par for the whites and a bit below average for the reds.
Vintages don’t happen without the help of friends and neighbours, so a big thank you to those that have helped out this year, in particular Ian, Andrew, Haydn, and Adrian (visiting from Bali). Cheers boys.
While there have been plenty of afternoon beers on the “three-beer bench” (it took me three beers to make) throughout vintage, it is nearly time to put my feet up for a brief moment, and toast to a successful vintage, before its time to get on the road selling and start pruning all too soon!
Cheers Adam
04/04/2019 at 12:00 PM
Permalink
Join Us At The Grampians Grape Escape
We will be at the Grampians Grape Escape wine festival 4-5 May and look forward to seeing you there.
At the event, Victoria’s longest running food and wine festival, you can rediscover the majesty of the Grampians and enjoy the region’s best wine, food, and music. Come and meet me, and the other winemakers and producers who are transforming Western Victoria into a foodie’s mecca.
Get your friends, family, and kids together and wander through a village of 120 stalls. There’s something for everyone, including masterclasses and cooking demonstrations, live music and celebrity chefs, plus plenty of free fun for the kids.
We’ll be featuring our full range of Chockstone and Hard Hill Road wines, and we’ll even provide a sneak peek of our new Grower Series. We may even do some guided tastings, so stay tuned.
30/01/2019 at 3:15 PM
Permalink
Cool Climate Trophy Winner! Hard Hill Road 2016 Shiraz
Our 2016 Hard Hill Road Shiraz won the Champion Shiraz Trophy at Australia’s premier 2018 National Cool Climate Wine Show. Not only that, we only just missed winning Wine of Show.
Halliday also loved this wine, giving it a 95-point score. Since he has a way with words, here’s Halliday’s review: “…the brooding black fruits, liquorice, spice, and graphite of the bouquet speak truly of the intense, yet elegant, medium to full-bodied palate. The tannins are fine, the oak a servant, the finish long and impeccably balanced.”
We only have a small amount of the 2016 Hard Hill Road Shiraz left in stock (we’re expecting a run on this wine from our distribution channels), but we’ll hold a supply for our newsletter subscribers if you order before the end of October.
We’re pretty proud of this news-enough for me to take a midday break from slashing and crack open a bottle!
22/10/2018 at 4:23 PM
Permalink