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Dalliance With Dalrymple»
Discovered by Dr Bertel Sundstrup in 1987, after a long search for the perfect site, the amphitheatre known as Dalrymple is a mere twelve hectares of sun drenched bucolic idyll, at the very heart of superior viticulture on the beauteous Apple Isle. This is Piper's Brook central, a place of auspicious winegrowing climes, long hours of sunlight and extended ripening seasons, which yield fruit of remarkable succulence, gracious acids and satin tannins. Dalrymple are a small, unincorporated winegrowing concern, whose accord with the elements and devotion to the land, are best articulated by the leisured pursuits of their chief vigneron, whose favourite pastimes are sheep herding, river fishing and making smoked goose sausages. The wines of Dalrymple Estate have established a quiet repute amongst devotees of the more elegant.. The verdant nook on pipers brook»
Man On A Mission»
Graeme Melton and a mate were travelling across South Australia in 1973, their EH Holden was in dire need of maintenance and Graeme took up casual work at a passing winery. The site supervisor was Peter Lehmann and young Graeme had his epiphany on the road to Barossa Valley. Lehmann suggested that Graeme change his name to Charlie and take the pilgrimmage to Vallee Rhone. Charlie became prepossessed with the culture of old vines Grenache, Shiraz and Mourverdre. He returned to the Barossa, at a time when old vineyard fruit was made into flagon Port and growers were destroying their historic sites in return for government grants. Charlie emabarked on a crusade to conserve and restore the ancient vines, establishing his cellars at Tanunda along Krondorf Road. He has since retained the most precious parcels, once destined.. Melton makes a mean mourvedre»
Chosen By The Chaffeys»
Lured to Australia by Alfred Deakin in 1887, the Chaffey Brothers were American irrigation engineers who took up a challenge to develop the dust bowls ofRenmark and Mildura into fruit growing wonderlands. They left our nation an extraordinary legacy and their progeny continue to make good wine. Several generations later, the Chaffey Bros are focused on the fruit of some grand old Barossa and Eden Valley sites. Chosen harvests of extraordinary grapes are the ticket for admission into the exclusive club of Chaffey vineyards. Shiraz is made in several different styles and there's a penchant for obscure white varietals in the Mosel River way. They make wine according to the art of the Parfumier, nothing is bottled unless it represents a profound experience in aromatic complexity. The transcendental excellence of superior.. A splendour of salient sites»

Dowie Doole Estate Merlot CONFIRM VINTAGE

Merlot McLaren Vale South Australia
There really is a Dowie Doole, architect/grower Drew Dowie and international banker/grower Norm Doole. Their dedicated team have struck a purple patch with Merlot, fortifying the pick of their crop with a tenth of Cabernet Sauvignon for structure, aromaticness and length. At Dowie Doole, quality drives everything. Viticulturally, the ultimate expression of quality is in delivering harvests of the most exceptional fruit to make great wines. The requisite McLaren Merlot style of early accessibility and soft lingering flavours, gracious tannins and supportive oak.
Available by the dozen
Case of 12
$275.00
Some of the finest, eldest and most distinguished McLaren Vale vineyards have now been welcomed into the Dowie Doole family. Merlot is harvested in excellent condition as the grapes achieve rich colour, exemplary varietal flavour, good acidity and fine ripe tannins. Fruit is crushed and vinified on skins in a static fermenter for six days. A third of the juices are run off into medium toast American oak hogsheads and barrel fermented to dryness. The balance is fermented to dryness and transferred to a selection of seasoned, second and third use barrels. Batches complete malolactic and several months maturation before assembling into the final wine.
Bright crimson red, purple hues. An aromatic nose dominated by spices and ripe red fruit such as plums, rhubarb and cherry. A medium bodied palate with barrel fermentation integrating the oak with ripe plum and soft, herbaceous, berry characters. The wine opens up to reveal roasted chocolate and coffee characters finishing with soft, rounded tannins.
Dowie Doole
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Dowie Doole
A bottle of good wine can help solve many problems, such were the thoughts of Norm Doole and Drew Dowie as they watched the sun rise after enduring a cold, all-night session harvesting some of their fruit from the difficult 1995 vintage

Seeing their grapes being trucked away to other wineries and frustrated at not being in control of their fruit from that point, the two opened a bottle of red wine over breakfast and decided then to form a partnership, the purpose of which was to take charge of all aspects of growing grapes, making, bottling and selling their own wine.

Dowie Doole

Enlisting the help of another friend, wine marketer Leigh Gilligan, to write a business plan, cajoling legendary local winemaker Brian Light into making the wine and briefing renowned designer Barrie Tucker to create a label – the fledgling Dowie Doole wine business was formed in late 1995.

As wine writer Huon Hooke so aptly put it – "not even the most coke addled advertising executive could have come up with the name Dowie Doole, but this name now enjoys a growing reputation in Australia and overseas as a consistently excellent producer of Chenin Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz".

Committed to growing and making classic regional McLaren Vale wines, Dowie Doole utilise predominantly estate-grown fruit which is crushed, fermented, and matured at Boar’s Rock winery in McLaren Vale under Brian Light’s guidance. Leigh Gilligan, who joined as a partner in 1998, now manages the day-to-day operations, while Norm Doole oversees the Norjan vineyard in the heart of McLaren Vale and Drew Dowie’s wife Lulu Lunn takes care of viticultural operations at Tintookie Vineyard in the hills above McLaren Vale at Blewitt Springs.

Dowie Doole

The source Tintookie Vineyard, owned by Drew Dowie and Lulu Lunn is situated 12 km north-east of McLaren Vale, close to the southern Mount Lofty Ranges, the property is medium to steeply sloping to both the east and west. At 16.6 hectares the site lies at 180-200 metres above sea level, colder and wetter than the floor of the valley in winter and cooler in summer. Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz and Chenin Blanc vines are grown to sand over reddish semi-porous clay with ironstone pebbles throughout.

The Norjan Vineyard owned and operated by Norm and Jane Doole was acquired in 1993, the property is located 3km west of the township of McLaren Vale on gently undulating land which was the site of one of South Australia’s earliest plantings of wine grapes. An area of 26.3 hectares at a lowly 55-65 metres above sea level grows Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc planted to sandy loam over limestone. The climes here are very mediterranean, coastal sea breezes, dry summers with warm days and cool nights.

The ancient Bell's Block and Old Rifle Range site belongs to Leigh and Jen Gilligan. Planted sometime in the 1920s Bell's Block is located just off Oakley Road, nestled in the heart of McLaren Flat township. At 55 metres above sea level, a precious 2.46 hectares of Grenache vines are grown to a mediterranean climate of coastal, sea breezes, dry summers with warm days and cool nights, atop free draining, sandy loams over clay. Old Rifle Range is situated in the foothills to the south of the township of McLaren Vale. Four hectares of Shiraz vines are planted to well drained, low-vigour clay-loams impregnated with limestone and some ironstone on the lower slopes. Another low altitude Mediterranean climed vineyard, north facing with a natural and gentle slope.

Dowie Doole