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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 grow world class wine. Vineyards thusly planted around the Goulburn billabongs, came to be known as Mitchelton. Now a half century of age, the vines remain one of Victoria's venerable sources of superbly structured, deeply flavoursome wines... Barriques between the billabongs»
Rouge Homme
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Rouge Homme
Right at the heart of Coonawarra are the Rouge Homme Vineyards, established in 1908 when the Redman family purchased part of John Riddoch's Penola Fruit Colony

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.

Rouge Homme

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.

Rouge Homme

Rouge Homme