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Geoff Hardy's family have been making Australian wine since 1857. Geoff grew up amongst the most distinguished vineyards in our land and he knows from good red wine. He retains access to the finest fruit in McLaren Vale and is the man behind many of our nation's most memorable vintages. Undercover is a moniker that Geoff has assigned to a collation of exceptional parcels, albeit bottled behind an abstruse label to secrete the provenance of a spectacular Shiraz. Gold Medal Winner & Best Value at the hotly contested 2016 China Wine & Spirit Awards, the pick of crop this week, seriously.. Sound shiraz for the savvy & shrewd»
Jack Mann reigns eternal as the greatest winemaker in the history of the Australian west. Jack Mann's son Tony grew up amongst the vineyards of Houghton but took a keener interest in things Cricket. He exelled at both pursuits but is best remembered as the legendary leg spinner Tony Rocket Mann. During his off seasons away from the pitch, Tony would plant parcels of vine alongside his illustruious father Jack and his own young son Robert. The fully grown Robert now makes his own wine, from fruit of the very vines sown by Jack and Tony Mann. Robert learned from his grandfather that great winemaking required a spiritual oneness with nature. The birds and the bees play a pivotal role in achieving a harvest of the most personable grapes. The ultimate quality of the ferments are decided by the character of yeasts as they populate the vine. So content is Robert Mann with the.. Whence the west was won»

Leabrook Great Little Neeyo Tempranillo CONFIRM VINTAGE

Tempranillo Clare Valley South Australia
An engaging Tempranillo wine in impressive new world styling, a fashionable fusion of savouryness, freshness and fruit. Gentle handling is the priority, there are no pumps, gravity is employed throughout the process to move grapes and musts. Florals and leather bouquet, violet, olives and bay. Opaque red berries and black cherry fruit, mulberry and five spice run through the long, soft palate, all framed by a veneer of vanillan cedar oak, supported by a flattering length of pliant tannins, exquisitely balanced by the judicious savouryness of a food friendly cherry tang.
Components are treated to a traditional vinification before transfer to a selection of seasoned oaks. Parcels of Tempranillo are painstakingly sorted, any damaged or unripe berries are discarded in the vineyard or during a final cut at the winery. Great care is taken during picking and transportation to ensure that the harvest arrives at the winery in exactly the same condition as existed on the vine.
Leabrook
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Leabrook
Leabrook Estate is a family-owned boutique winery located in the cool climate Adelaide Hills at Lobethal in South Australia

Leabrook Estate specialises in high quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and produces wines from a range of other cool climate varieties including Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. The story of Leabrook Estate started in 1978 around bottles of Burgundian wines at dinner parties. The wines had great character and delicacy. This was the beginning of Leabrook estate founder Colin Best's love affair with Burgundy and things Burgundian. These wines had an extra dimension of elegance and intensity.

Leabrook

After a visit to Burgundy, Colin started by leasing a small quarter hectare patch of rocky clay soil in the Adelaide Hills where he planted clones of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay; a hobby block that for several years taught the trials and pitfalls of mildew, weeds and winemaking techniques. The French had close planted for a reason, based on 200 years experience. The resulting wines immediately started to show promise and before long, Colin Best was planning his retirement from engineering to devote his life to viticulture.

Colin approached winemakers already established in the relatively young Adelaide Hills wine region and was overwhelmed with their generosity and assistance. The attitude and friendliness of the Adelaide Hills vignerons contrasted so greatly with the elements of the contract engineering scene, that Colin became a full time vigneron. A historic former woollen mill in Lobethal was ideally suited for winemaking, with thick walls and connections to effluent disposal, within a kilometre of the vineyard, this became Leabrook Estate Winery.

The Leabrook Estate vineyard lies in the Onkaparinga Valley in the Eastern area of the Adelaide Hills. The climate is well suited to most cool climate varieties and ripening is usually reliable, provided the fruit is exposed to light and there is no over cropping. The vineyard lies on a gentle slope with relatively shallow soils. The soil profile consists of clays over dolomite and is reasonably well drained. The vineyard is protected from the prevailing winds causing good fruit set from flowering.

Leabrook

Hedge pruning exposes the fruit to light, necessary to achieve grapes of the highest quality. If the season has been too favourable for the vine, and foliage is excessive, workers are dispatched to the vineyard prior to harvest, plucking leaves from around the bunches to expose the fruit, and cutting away excessive growth. Fruit quality can also be affected by other factors. All Leabrook Estate vineyards are netted to minimise bird damage. A large fan has been installed in the lower lying frost prone area of the vineyard to circulate air on frosty mornings and protect the young growing shoots.

Leabrook Estate's policy is to achieve the best possible quality fruit. Vines are stressed with water levels kept to the minimum, while still providing healthy leaves to aid ripening. Spraying for mildew are kept to the very minimum; pesticide sprays are non existent, relying on natural predators to control pests. Picking time is a very complex affair. Up to 30 small batches of grapes are sampled and tested for taste and physical characteristics from the 2 hectare vineyard, and a picking strategy is developed over several weeks to provide the particular flavour profile designed for Leabrook Estate Wines.

All fruit is hand picked with any damaged or unripe fruit discarded in the vineyard and during a final sorting during the crushing process at the winery. Great care is taken during picking and transportation such that the fruit arrives at the winery in exactly the same condition as existed on the vine. A small group of pickers are employed to ensure a constant flow of fruit from the vineyard to the winery for immediate processing. The same care extends through the winemaking process, when only gentle crushing is performed and there is no rough pumping of must, relying only on gravity to take the grapes into their fermentation stage.

Boutique winemaking has a number of inherent advantages, mainly to do with quality control associated with small quantities. Every barrel can be hand nurtured during the year and crafted into a style based on the same fruit source each year. Techniques can be fine tuned, both in winemaking and possibly more importantly in the vineyard, where the vine's balance can be determined to give the best quality fruit for the particular site.

Leabrook