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Greg Melick embarked on the prodigal road to gambling and booze as a mere teenager, after winning the daily double at Werribee and spending the lot on good red wine. He ultimately returned to the straight and narrow, achieving the rank of ADF Major General, Senior Law Counsel, Master Wine Judge and Officer of Australia AO. Melick now grows his own, he remains besotted with les grands vignobles de Bourgogne, the illustrious Pinot Noir of Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune. There are few places in the world, more akin to the 1er Grand Cru style of Pinot Noir, than the temperate pastures along Tasmania's River Derwent. It was here in 2002, amongst the woodland.. Pressing matters in pinot noir»
Unico Zelo are an old world style of winemaking co-operative, a congress of Adelaide Hills family growers who take their work seriously, to ensure that their harvests are fashioned into a range of exquisite, artisanally crafted limited edition wines. Italian varietals are the specialty, a class of grapes which grow magnificently within the premier precincts of Adelaide Hills, eco friendly to local flora and fauna, they bloom wonderfully in the parched, unirrigated mesoclimes of native Australia. Made to measure for enthusiasts of the small batch Adelaide Hills style, aficianados of Italianate chic and gourmands at large, the wines of Unico Zelo raise the fruit.. The adelaide collective of veteran vignerons»
The Australian winemaking industry is grateful to Leontine O'Shea, instrumental in the establishment of Mount Pleasant wines, she sent her son Maurice to France for an education in viticulture right at the outbreak of World War I, gifting him his first Hunter Valley vineyard in 1921. Mount Pleasant are now custodians of some grand old sites, a canon of small, elite blocks of vine that yield a precious range of icon wines, which represent peerless value and readily disappear before release of the following vintage... The legacy of grand old hunter valley vineyards»
Major Sir Thomas Mitchell left more than just an invaluable bequeth of our nation's most detailed frontier maps. Mitchell distinguished himself in Wellington's army during the Napoleonic wars in the renowned 95th Baker Rifles. A gifted draftsman, he found his way to the nascent colonies of Australia, where his acumen at mapmaking won him the office of Surveyor General. During one of Mitchell's historical expeditions, he charted the fertile lands around Victoria's Goulburn Valley, establishing the colonial fruitgrowing township of Mitchell's Town. The district's auspicious orchards flourished until Colin Preece identified the region as an opportune place to.. Barriques between the billabongs»

Elderton Estate Merlot CONFIRM VINTAGE

Merlot Barossa South Australia
Elderton made use of a secret ingredient across their stately range of award winning wines for many years, they originally called on small amounts of estate grown Merlot as an essential component. Eventually the quality of Merlot itself became so exceptional that the decision was made to bottle it as a pure wine. Elderton has now been recognised as one of the finest and most consistent examples of the varietal in Australia, manifesting just how gracious a Barossa Merlot can be, a wine of controlled power, polish and identity, sublime harmony and superb length.
Available by the dozen
Case of 12
$359.00
Elderton has only two small blocks of Merlot, situated towards the back of the vineyard on the highest point where the soils are much sandier and free draining than those which are closer to the river bed. Flourishing under favourable climes, the grapes achieve heightened levels of natural sugar, leading to a significant ripening of intense flavours. Harvested throughout the cool of night, grapes are crushed and inoculated to choice yeasts, vinified over the course of several days and pumped over twice daily for maximum extraction. The finished wine is treated to an extended maturation in a selection of mainly French oak puncheons.
Dark ruby red colour. Aromas of ripe berry and chocolate, plum spice and earthy notes, caramel and savoury toasty oak. Medium to full bodied palate, plum and cherry spice, cedar and black fruits over a lovely silken texture, Elderton shows gorgeous balance between sweet chocolatey fruit and earthy spicy tannins. A treat with grilled lamb, couscous and jus de viande.
Elderton
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Elderton
Based in the heart of Australia's Barossa Valley and boasting vineyards over a century old, Elderton is a producer of some of the world's great wines

Winner of Australia's most coveted wine award the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy (1993) and the prestigious London International Wine & Spirit Competition's World's Best Shiraz Trophy (2000), Elderton remains proudly owned by the Ashmead family. The Elderton Vineyard is located on the banks of the North Para River, which is on the southern edge of the township of Nuriootpa. The Barossa Valley's climate is classified as Mediterranean, which amounts to warm summers (average temperature in January is 25°C to 35°C) and cool wet winters with an annual rainfall of 550 mm. The vineyard was planted in 1904 by Samuel Elderton Tolley, with a view to supplying Barossa wineries with premium fruit. After a period of neglect, the Ashmead family purchased the vineyard in 1979 and went about restoring it to its former glory. Modern viticulture practices were employed and the vineyard began to flourish.

Elderton

The inaugural 1982 vintage is now considered a collector's item. The first Command Shiraz followed suit in 1984 making it one of Australia's oldest blockbuster wines. Elderton went on to be distinguished by Australia's most coveted wine award the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy (1993) and the prestigious London International Wine & Spirit Competition's World's Best Shiraz Trophy (2000). In 2003 Elderton finished building its own winery in Nuriootpa, formerly a Penfolds site. Elderton was now able to grow, produce and bottle wines all on the family estate. This means a greater to attention to detail.

The vineyard now comprises 70 acres with the principle varieties being Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The majority of the vineyard is between 40 and 100 years in age. This age, combined with minimal irrigation, produces rich, concentrated fruit for exhibiting classic varietal characters. The majority of the vineyard is planted east to west, allowing the breezes from the Barossa ranges to flow through the rows rather than across them. These breezes assist with canopy management.

The real strength behind the Elderton success is the ancient 72 acre Barossa Floor Vineyard, which produces fruit of the highest quality year in year out. Each block on the property is cherished but the two standouts are the 104-year-old Command Shiraz block and the 64-year-old Ashmead Cabernet Sauvignon block. Some of the older blocks on the vineyard are planted with unknown clones, however, all plantings since 1949 are Shiraz 1654, BVRC12 or BVRC30, with the Cabernet Sauvignon being G9V3 or LC10. The trellising used throughout the vineyard for recent plantings is simply a double wire vertical with single wire trellising used on earlier plantings.

Elderton

Following fast on the heels of the estate's world renown reputation for red wines, Elderton is gaining a reputation for white wines. The white grapes are mostly all picked in the cool of the night to ensure that they come into the winery at the right temperature. They are crushed at this temperature, where some whole bunch pressing is also done and only the free run juice is used, which in most instances is fermented at cool fermentation (14–16°C) levels.

The red grapes are also picked in the cool of the night, much of the old vine stock is hand picked to ensure the longevity of the vines and integrity of the fruit. They are crushed and fermented in open concrete, static stainless steel fermenters, or limited amounts of barrel fermentation. These ferments are temperature controlled (normally 20–24˚C) before they are fermented to dryness. The wines are then pressed off in the air bag presses releasing most of the colour and complex tannin structures before being blended back into the total blend. The wines are then pumped over to temperature controlled maturation cellars and carefully monitored before further blending and bottling. The best French and American oak and all barrels are benchmarked annually by the winemaking team and the respective coopers to ensure that the oak complements the wines fully.

Stainless steel crushers, centrifuge, air bag presses and temperature controlled stainless steel static fermenters complement the already existing 60 year concrete open fermenters that help shape the wines of distinction. The site also now has a modern lab with a full time lab manager assessing where the wines are at any stage of the process. In 2006, Elderton gained organic certification as a wine processor from the Australian Certified Organic organisation, the first step in the process of working towards a changeover to biodynamic farming techniques.

Elderton