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| Amherst is a town rich with colourful history and local folklore, site of the first official gold find in 1851, it launched a mining rush which expanded throughout central Victoria. The district's long association with viticulture is also prolific and colourful. Amherst» |
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| Villa Maria possess the magic touch with Pinot Gris, regularly clearing international wine events of prestigious trophies. Private Bin has been included in the Decanter Top 50 Best Under £10 and identified as a Decanter favourite. Villa Maria» |
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| Charles Cimicky was inspired by his father to take over the reins at the family estate, that's when the good wines started turning into awesome wines. Today, Cimicky is one of the most meticulous winemakers in South Australia. Charles Cimicky» |
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| Have you ever imagined yourself sipping on a luscious effervescent red wine? Vixen makes makes it very real. Your friends will be jealous, past party escorts will seem dull by comparison and all eyes will be on you as you stride into your next party with Vixen on your arm. Fox Creek» |
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| Coriole is one of McLaren Vale's most eminent, artisanal estates. Consecutive vintages of Coriole Shiraz have claimed a remarkable back to back San Francisco Double Gold. Coriole» |
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| A mostly Cabernet wine with a tenth of Merlot, a jot of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, representing almost a third of Hollick's annual production. Previous vintages of Tannery Block have won numerous prestigious awards, including the pre-eminent Jimmy Watson, Robert Bryce and Arthur Kelman Trophies. Hollick» |
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| The marvelous S1 block is a sheltered, relatively warm site within the splendid vistas of Seaview Vineyard, on a north facing plateau at 160m above sea level, refreshed by maritime winds that blow in from the Cludy Bay coast. Fruit is crushed and destemmed, chilled and gently pressed, the clearest juices are racked off for a long, cool ferment to capture the full opulence of S1 vineyard grapes on the vine. Yealands Estate» |
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| A highly prolific wine industry trophy winner, including best single vineyard and best Shiraz at the hotly contested McLaren Vale Wine Show. A magnificent collation of old vines fruit from several pickings on the illustrious Rayner property, including a judicious measure of grapes as whole bunches, are treated to a wild indigenous yeast ferment and course of age in barrels of well seasoned French oak. Bondar» |
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| Given the scarcity of Best's prestige, limited release, old vineyard icons, Bin #1 affords enthusiasts their first taste of the Great Western Shiraz style and leaves them eager to discover more. A classic, cool climate, aromatic wine, floral and spicy, peppery and elegant, retaining vital Great Western fruit character. Bests» |
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| Paringa Estate has established an unassailable repute over the last twenty years as one of the leading small winery vineyards in the country, named Australian Winery of the Year by James Halliday. Paringa Shiraz won a total of six trophies including Best of Show at the 2006 Royal Sydney, sweeping the field with five Gold Medals and five Trophies, including the prestigious Best of Show and Best Shiraz at the 2009 Royal Sydney, as well as Best Shiraz Trophy Royal Melbourne. Paringa Estate» |
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| Richard Bailey planted one of the first Glenrowan vineyards in the 1860s. The Bailey estate survived the downturn of the Victorian gold rush, the ravages of phylloxera and excesses of the Kelly gang, it endures to this day, producing some of the nation's most intensely flavoured and historically significant wines. Baileys Glenrowan» |
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| Warre's have re-established themselves as the most innovative marque in Port, balancing a long tradition with innovation and ongoing appeal to new generations of enthusiasts. The clean, modern style makes an excellent fortified wine that continues to claim gold medals at the world's leading competitions year after year.. Warres» |
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About Thistledown - the Winery
Thistledown
Best known as an inspirational leader of the contemporary Grenache movement, Thistledown make small batch wines from the fruit of wonderful South Australian vineyards
It's no secret that Thistledown are obsessed with Grenache, particularly the old vine, dry grown stuff of Barossa and McLaren Vale. Maybe it's the result of years travelling around the vineyards of Spain. Grenache, in all its guises, flows through the veins of Thistledown's devoted team. They have begun assembling a collection of some of the best Grenache vineyards, with the intention of becoming the authority on Australian Grenache. Thistledown's approach to winemaking is simple. They work with remarkable sites, so the job is simply to capture and coax the extraordinary richness of that fruit into bottle, retaining as much of the personality and vitality as possible. Low yielding sites, hand picked a little earlier into the vintage, yielding vines of outstanding power and singular excellence.
Thistledown started with a vision to produce wines that are definitively of their place. Though that sounds a bit pretentious, it's just about making wines that reflect the personality of the place, the dedication of growers and passion of the winemaker. Thistledown’s unique blend of magnificent quality fruit, inspired by the experiences of winemaking amongst grand vineyards in the new world and old, as driven by two Masters of Wine, achieves wine of unsurpassable balance and subtlety, texture and detail. Wines which are already a long way down the path to perfection. Experimenting and trialling from within their base of operations in the beautiful Adelaide Hills, working to the philosophy that if they haven't made the best wines possible of each vintage, that they haven’t been trying hard enough!
The folks at Thistledown love wines with life, vibrancy of fruit, texture, tension and drinking appeal. In order to achieve this, they only work with very high quality grapes, from growers who share a vision and are prepared to deliver the most pristine fruit to the winery.
In the winery, the small batches are allowed to spontaneously ferment, using minimal extraction, concrete fermenters and the detail that oak can bring, without dominating the flavour, such that they need do as little as possible to make the best wine.
Thistledown are perfectly set up to deal with the multitude of small batches which arrive at the winery. They source fruit from many of the best sites across the iconic regions of South Australia. Thistledown work closely with growers who, like themselves, want to see the character of their vineyard as faithfully portrayed in bottle as possible. It's become the norm in some regions to give the grapes extended hang time, to encourage fruit sweetness and ripe flavours in the vineyard. Thistledown prefer to work with fruit that still has great balance of sweetness, acidity and tannin, fruit that's picked on the way up rather than on the way down. They are well along the journey of slowly gathering the very best selection of Grenache sites throughout Australia.
Over a period of time, Thistledown have succeeded in gaining access to sites that they could only have dreamed of in the early days of their quest. Privileged and grateful to the god of wine for being able to craft wines from a tally of the finest vineyards in Australia’s distinguished viticultural history.
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