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Rolf Binder is one of the Barossa's quiet achieving superstars, recipient of the most conspicuous national accolades, Barossa Winemaker of Year and Best Small Producer, Best Barossa Shiraz Trophy and coveted listing in the illustrious Langtons Classification of Australian Wine. Binder's focus has always been on old vines fruit, in particular, the abstruse canon of early settler varietals which populated Barossa Valley during the 1840s. Wild bush vines Mataro, picked off patches at Tanunda along Langmeil Road, ancient growths of Grenache from Gomersal and Light Pass. Rolf's tour de force are eight superlative rows of Shiraz, established 1972 by the Binders junior and senior, which yield a mere 250 dozen.. Seven decades of tillage at tanunda»
An illustrious vineyard winery of great historical import, the Kay Brothers Amery property is planted to sacred vines which can be traced back to cuttings transplanted from the original Hardy site at Tintara. Holding pride of place as one of Mclaren Vale's first commercial vineyards, the winemaking practices at Kay Brothers have remained largely unchanged since establishment in the nineteenth century. An ancient basket press, painted bright red, is still employed to gently crush grapes in the traditional old world way. The exquisite Kay Brothers range remains one of the most sensational values in superior vintages of new world wine, the fruit of distinguished old vines, family operated since.. The essence & excellence of old mclaren vale vines»
Kooyong Estate only make limited editions from tiny blocks of vine, a hectare or less, which yield deeply personal wines, highly eloquent of their terroir, aspect and clime. There are the pebbled ironstone soils of Farrago, which create an uncannily Burgundesque style of Chardonnay, redolent of grapefruits, mealy bran and wet flint. The precious half hectare at Faultline articulates the savouryness of seaweed and struck match. The sheltered lee of Haven Block encourages the grapes to bloom with chewy red jube characters. The windswept parcel at Meres infuses wonderfully perfumed rhubarb and ribena notes into a velvetine tannin structure. All are equally remarkable for their individuality, they speak of.. Venerable vintages from the most precious parcels»
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.. Barriques between the billabongs»

Villa Maria Private Bin Merlot CONFIRM VINTAGE

Merlot Hawkes Bay New Zealand
From fruit grown to closely husbanded vines on the Villa Maria estate property, at the outskirts of the eminent Gimblett Gravels precinct in Hawkes Bay. The vineyard has been managed to holistic principles of viticulture for many years, the quality of wine speaks for itself. Rather than relying on herbicides or pesticides, the focus is on enhancing soil health and yielding harvests of clean, natural grapes. Yields are kept limited to realize a quality of fruit that's concentrated and bursting with ripe natural sugars.
A minimalistic approach is employed throughout the winemaking process to complement what has been painstakingly achieved in the vineyard. Merlot grapes are destemmed and crushed into fermentation vessels. Fruit is pumped over and plunged several times daily for optimal extraction rich of colour, flavour and and just the right amount of gentle, soft tannins. Following the press and completion of malolactic, a component is transferred to a selection of seasoned French and American oak barriques for a year's maturation. Free range organic egg whites are employed to naturally soften the wine's tannins prior to filtration into bottle.
Deep crimson hues. The nose offers lifted ripe fruit aromas of blood plums and bramble along with dark chocolate oak. Vibrant red plum and berry fruits over subtle spice and cedar undertones. An abundance of dark fruit are paired with fine grained tannins to give a generous and rounded mouthfeel of great intensity and persistence. The full, textured palate and soft tannins make Villa Maria an excellent food wine.
Merlot
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Villa Maria
Its relative youthfulness not withstanding, the New Zealand based Villa Maria Group is establishing a reputation as one of the great wine companies of the world

Founded in 1961 and still operated by George Fistonich, Villa Maria has been New Zealand's leading wine award winner, both nationally and internationally since the early 1980's. Villa Maria's talented people have an unrelenting passion to produce quality wines.

Villa Maria

Realising that it takes more than just good winemaking to produce quality, a passion to succeed begins in the vineyard. Astute site selection by Villa Maria's vineyard experts, is followed by superior vineyard management and then complemented by expert winemaking. A strong focus on continually improving the vineyards is considered by Villa Maria to be an incredibly important factor in quality winemaking.

Vineyards have the highest of priority for Villa Maria whose team really does live and breathe the philosophy that it all starts in the vineyard. The grapes produced must be superb quality, as this is the essence of good winemaking. Villa Maria owns vineyards and sources grapes from contract growers from some of the best sites in three of New Zealand's leading grape growing regions; Marlborough, Hawke's Bay and Gisborne.

Villa Maria Estate has two state-of-art wineries in New Zealand. The largest is the new Auckland Winery and Vineyard Park. The Marlborough winery is based in one of New Zealand's premium grape-growing regions. The winery now crushes Villa Maria's Marlborough harvest from its vineyards and contract growers throughout the region. A new winery in Auckland was essential for Villa Maria to meet the increased domestic and export demand for wines and it has been designed to allow for long-term growth. Villa Maria also has 20 hectares of vines at the Auckland Winery site.

Villa Maria

As well as managing the company and publicly owned vineyard sites, Villa Maria's winemaking team work closely with contract growers. Villa Maria has a team of 80 dedicated contract growers in Hawke's Bay, Gisborne and Marlborough who grow grapes under the close guidance of the company’s vineyard experts. Villa Maria's viticulturists, based in all three regions, have one focus - to consistently deliver quality fruit that is physiologically ready, to the winemakers.

Villa Maria was named as one of the world's 50 great wine producers by Wine Spectator. Named New Zealand Wine Company of the Year at Australia's Winestate Wine Awards for the sixth time in seven years. New Zealand Wine Producer of the Year and Best Sauvignon Blanc Trophy - 2004 International Wine and Spirit Competitions in the United Kingdom. Trophy for the Most Successful Exhibitor at the 2004 New Zealand Wine Society Royal Easter Show for the third time in four years and winemaker Alastair Maling MW, collecting the Gold Medal for Champion Winemaker of the Show. This is the third time in four years Villa Maria winemakers have won the award. George Fistonich was also short listed as one of 50 prominent figures in the wine industry by UK Wine International Magazine, named New Zealander of the year by the prestigious National Business Review, and in the top ten New Zealanders by daily newspaper, The New Zealand Herald.

Villa Maria pioneered the development of specialist publicly owned vineyard companies in New Zealand with the setting up of Seddon and Terra Vitae Vineyards. Both companies own vineyards, which Villa Maria is contracted both to manage and source grapes from. Seddon was the first ever public vineyard company in New Zealand. Terra Vitae owns vineyards in Hawke's Bay and Marlborough. Many of the estate's Hawkes Bay red grape varietals are planted in company owned and managed vineyards in the area known as Gimblett Gravels. Now regarded as an appellation in its own right, Gimblett Gravels represents 34 wineries and winegrowers, including Villa Maria Estate. The area, which takes in the Gimblett Road, is defined both by location and by soil type. Vineyards in the Gimblett Gravels area have already produced numerous award winning red wines for Villa Maria.

Villa Maria