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Sanguine Estate winemaker Mark Hunter also said there were many facets to making a great Shiraz.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you talk to small producers who have their own vineyard, they\u2019ll very much talk about that vineyard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that’s the quintessential thing that makes me different to any other big winery in Australia, it\u2019s that my little block of land is producing something very different to anybody else’s.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re really trying to learn what the character of the vineyard is and make it stand out.”<\/p>\n
Mr Hunter said soil structure and water retention in the soil were very important.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve got probably four or five different soil types on this property, all producing very different styles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith one of our blocks, I dug up the roots on one vine and the roots just went sideways.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn’t go down at all and I could see that this block would struggle during the really hot days.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a hardpan clay that was half a metre down that stopped the roots from penetrating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Cambrian soil, or the Cambrian decaying rock, tends to go for metres and it’s quite consistent so the roots just go straight down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve dug up vines when they were only 10 years old and the roots were two metres down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Hunter said that crafting higher-level wines ultimately came down to blending.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at every 10 rows of vineyard, then that is pretty much a different fermenter in the winery,\u201d he said. \u201cSo in each fermenter I try and do something different.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt then comes down to fermentations, temperatures, how long they’re on skins and if you use the whole bunch cluster or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s lots of little techniques that change the style of each ferment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI might have 80 samples of Shiraz from this one small vineyard and we can craft wines from that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanguine Estate has been one of the Heathcote region\u2019s top award winners for several years and has been a James Halliday Wine Companion Red 5 Star winery since 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FOR many wine lovers Heathcote is synonymous with Shiraz and the region\u2019s winemakers produce some of the best on offer. But what makes this rich deep-coloured wine with its complex fruit flavours so special? Condie Estate\u2019s Richie Condie said the Heathcote climate played an important part. \u201cWe get these lovely ripening conditions, generous growing conditions […]<\/p>\n