For half a century, the Rouge Homme winemakers supplied wine to other companies and merchants. With the inaugural release of the 1954 Cabernet Sauvignon, Rouge Homme as a winery itself began to attract some of the fame. Rouge Homme, French for Red Man, signified the similarity of the wines to the red wines of Bordeaux. The Rouge Homme Richardson's label was introduced with the 1992 vintage and named in honour of Henry Richardson. In 1892 Henry Richardson, one of the earliest Coonawarra pioneers, purchased land from the region's founder John Riddoch, and established a vineyard winery on the property.
In 1965 the Redman family sold the vineyards and winery, which, with the original Richardson property, became Rouge Homme as it is today. Occupying about 60 hectares, the vineyards are planted with classic varieties including Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Pinot Noir, with a small amount of Chardonnay. The Rouge Homme Winery is now one of the most modern and sophisticated in the Coonawarra.
Situated in the southeast of South Australia some 50kms north of Mount Gambier, the Coonawarra grapegrowing district is a unique isolated strip of rich terra rossa soil over porous limestone. Running in a north-south direction just over 14kms long and around 2kms wide, it is an island of red soil bordered by black soil, grazing country and sandy loams. A climate of cold, wet winters and mild to warm, dry summers allows slow ripening of the grapes, with excellent development of sugar levels and flavour, and the retention of good acidity. Because of the cold winters and springs, the vines at Rouge Homme are trained over especially high trellises, with overhead mist sprinklers to protect them from frosts during spring.
As custodians of the Rouge Homme's great Coonawarra traditions, the winemaking team continues to produce a range of distinctive, approachable wines which have the potential to develop great complexity with bottle ageing over many years. With a considerable reputation as classic Coonawarra, Rouge Homme wines are frequent gold medal winners - particularly the reds. In 1994, Rouge Homme received what is regarded by many to be the wine industry's greatest accolade - the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy which was awarded to 1993 Rouge Homme Richardsons Red Block.
