Balnaves are a small family owned wine company with a giant reputation in the heart of the famous Coonawarra Terra Rossa strip. Their first wine was from the 1990 vintage, and in 19 years, Balnaves have established their reputation as one of the very best producers in the Coonawarra
Bremerton "... can faily claim to be the best producer in Langhorne Creek." (James Halliday Wine Companion 2010) The brand shot to fame in 2007 when Halliday rated their 2003 Old Adam Shiraz equal points with Hill of Grace and Grange
The predominant varieties grown in the vineyard are cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and merlot, with small plantings of sauvignon blanc, verdelho, chardonnay, malbec and petit verdot.
Domain Day is a unique vineyard situated on a carefully selected site at Mt Crawford, high in the hills at the south eastern extremity of Australia's famous Barossa Valley wine region. Its altitude of 450 metres and the mix of unusual varieties make it one of the coolest and most interesting vineyards in the Barossa.
Mainstream varieties merlot, pinot noir, and riesling are supplemented by small plantings of viognier, sangiovese, saperavi, lagrein, garganega, nebbiolo and sagrantino.
Elderton Wines is a family owned and operated winery, situated in the heart of the Barossa Valley. The winery shot to prominence in the early 1990's after winning the prestigious Jimmy Watson Trophy at the 1993 Melbourne Wine Show. There has been an amazing amount of further wine show success including the World's Best Shiraz Trophy at the 2000 London International Wine and Spirits Competition.
Neville Yates, Sydney wine importer, sources all his wine at the vineyards of boutique producers. He is entranced by Champagne, Burgundy and German riesling, and also imports award-winning wines from South Africa and New Zealand that have a European influence to their approach and style.
Faber n. (Latin) / fae-ber / craft, trade, skilful, dedicated, creative.
Faber Vineyard was established in 1997 by well-known winemaker John Griffiths. He chose the name Faber because he believes winemaking is a craft, and the name means craft.
The dream is to grow regionally distinctive grapes and craft wines that are rich and flavoursome.
In addition to the fruit from his Swan Valley vineyard, John has access to some magnificent chardonnay and malbec from the Orondo vineyard in Dwellingup, and cabernet sauvignon from Frankland.
His range includes: Swan verdelho, Dwellingup chardonnay, Riche shiraz, petit Verdot, Dwellingup malbec, Chardonnay Blanc de Blanc and Reserve shiraz.
Isolation brings it own rewards.
Frankland Estate is a family owned and operated winery in the remote Frankland River region of Western Australia. The 'home' vineyard, Isolation Ridge, was planted in 1988.
The wines have won widespread critical acclaim and the Isolation Ridge riesling has been consistently ranked among the best in Australia.
Owner / Winemaker Rob Bowen offers hand crafted wines from Pemberton and Margaret River, Western Australia. Rob brings over 35 vintages of experience in making fine wines from Western Australia to this venture, established in 2009.
The Pemberley range from Pemberton offers unique hand crafted sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and pinot noir varieties from Dave Rado’s vineyard on Ockwell Road in Pemberton.
The Point Peron range offers the classic Margaret River varieties of sauvignon blanc semillon, chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon from some of the finest vineyards in the Margaret River Region.
Picaroon is an entry level range retailing at $14. The wines, all from Margaret River, include semillon sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and shiraz.
Giribaldi are producing some of the best value wines from the Langhe: sensational Gavi (100% cortese variety), dolcetto, barbera and nebbiolo, as well as Barbaresco and Barolo.
They pursue organic viticultural practices, with some wines fully certified organic.
Owned by the Pegasus Bay people, and produced by their wine-making team, Main Divide has chosen a handful of South Island vineyards because of their unique terrior and the quality of their grapes.
Main Divide is the local name for the Southern Alps which form the backbone of Te Wai Pounamu, the South Island of New Zealand.
Rated one of New Zealand's top 5 producers.
Robert Parker Guide 7th Edition
The Waipara Valley is on New Zealand's South Island, 30 minutes drive north of Christchurch. Pegasus Bay is rated the best winery in the region, producing some of New Zealand's greatest pinot noir, chardonnay and riesling.
"Pegasus Bay gets my vote for Waipara's top winery for a number of reasons: its wines are often exceptionally good and are always made in adventurous, out of the main stream styles."
Bob Campbell MW - Australian Gourmet Traveller
Family and tradition
The Peos family have farmed in the west Manjimup districy for generations. The family came to Australia from Macedonia with a viticultural background.
The establishment of the Peos estate vineyard by the third generation of Peos brothers has brought the viticultural tradition full circle.
The vineyard is part of the Gjergja family domain, which includes Kooyong vineyard and winery. The winemaker is Sandro Moselle.
"The November opening of the multi-million dollar winery, restaurant and cellar door was a landmark event, happily the wines are of a commensurately high quality."
James Halliday, Australian Top 100.
The Punt Road brand was launched in 2001. The winery is located in Coldstream - the heart of the Yarra Valley. Punt Road sources fruit from 190 hectares of privately owned vineyards within the Yarra Valley, just 50 kms east of Melbourne - only small parcels of the best fruit are used for Punt Road. Winemaker Kate Goodman is an accomplished wine show judge and has extensive experience in Champagne, California and Spain
Jim and Helen Watts planted the 32 hectare Fox Creek Vineyard property in 1984, after being advised against planting vines as the soils were heavy clay.
Undeterred they planted fine quality cuttings which produce extraordinary good quality fruit.
The first wine made at Fox Creek was the 1994 Shiraz, which won the Trophy for the best wine at the McLaren Vale Wine Show in 1995.
Fox Creek now markets single varietal wines from shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and merlot and blends of cabernet sauvignon and merlot (Duet), shiraz and cabernet franc (JSM), and a sparkling shiraz cabernet franc (Vixen). The white wines produced are chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and verdelho.
Mark and Cassandra Beeson have a small vineyard in Marybrook (Margaret River Region) where they grow the fruit for this wine. The vineyard is dry grown and 10 years old and sits on the old Carbanup River plains.
The grapes are cane cut to deprive the bunches of nutrition – shrivelling occurs until they lose approximately 20%- 30% of their “body weight” – this results in flavours being enriched, higher sugars and thus higher alcohol wines.
They are then hand-picked, fully fermented and left on a combination of new and one and two year old French oak for 15-18 months.
The wine isn’t meant to mimic an Amarone rather than being a celebration of the technique and certainly a way to intensify flavours and produce a unique cabernet sauvignon style.
Rockfield Estate is a family owned estate of 11 hectares at Rosa Glen, 16 kilometres south of Margaret River. All fruit used in their unique and distinctive varietal wines is estate grown, and the wines are made on site at their winery.
The multi-award winning reserve chardonnay is joined in the range by semillon, and semillon-sauvignon blanc blend and cabernet sauvignon.
Rocky Gully is an entry-level range of wines produced by Frankland Estate from purchased and estate grown fruit.
They are wines of style rather than weight, of fruit rather than alcohol, and offer excellent value for their pure, clean, fruit driven flavours.
Shadowfax have vineyards in key Victorian sites, but also buy in fruit. Winemaker Matt Harrop crafts textural chardonnays that have brought attention and awards, and fine shiraz from Heathcote's three oldest vineyards. Wines are made separately from five shiraz vineyards.
Shadowfax maintains close relationships with a select group of growers who provide fruit for their chardonnay, pinot gris, sauvignon blanc and pinot noir.
Spy Valley is what the locals call the Waihope Valley, as it is home to an international satellite communications base.
Johnson Estate, comprising the vineyards of Envoy and Spy Valley Wines have eight varieties of grapes planted over 125Ha in Malborough's Lower Waihope Valley. Established in 1993 by the Johnson family, the estate was one of the pioneering vineyard companies in the Marlborough sub-region and is still family owned.
The Trades is the project of Rachel Taylor and Thierry Ruault, owners of Terra Wines.
The name honours their tradesmen forebears. Using their extensive contacts in the wine industry to develop this range of food-friendly and regionally distinctive wines, Rachel and Thierry have released their Margaret River range along with an excellent South Australian sparkling.
wine by brad is the result of the collaboration of a few Margaret River characters, wine makers and hangers on, who decided in 2003 to access some quality fruit, design a label, release the wine and see what happened.
In spite of themselves, the wines are true expressions of regional and varietal characteristics and are of high quality, winning accolades and awards. They are now a respected established brand.
The Kangarilla Road brand was established in 1997 by Kevin and Helen O’Brien on vineyards planted in 1975.
The winery and vineyards follow bio-dynamic principles and environmentally sustainable practices.
The winery is certified to produce Organic wine.
Key wines produced are chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. Primitivo (zinfandel) and sangiovese are also produced.