Our Wines
OUR CURRENT WINES
From 2011 to 2017 the grapes for our wines were grown on Stuart Woodman’s vineyard at Springton, which was mine in a previous iteration. This vineyard is at 440 metres in the Eden Valley Region.
In 2018 and 2019 the grapes were sourced from Michael Noack’s vineyard, directly across the road from the Woodman vineyard.
All fruit was hand harvested.
2011 CELLAR MATURED RIESLING
$32 per bottle – CLICK HERE TO BUY ONLINE
This small parcel of premium Riesling grapes was sourced from the very old vines (planted in the 1920’s).
The climatic patterns in 2011 delivered an unusual amount of rain and humidity in the ripening period.
Judges notes from 2020 Barossa Wine Show: “Bright colour with green tinge. Showing glorious developed characters. The palate is fresh and vibrant.”
2022 Canberra Riesling Challenge the wine was awarded 88 points and a “Commendation”.
2023 Canberra Riesling Challenge the wine was awarded a gold medal – 94 points and an “Excellent” Award.
The wine still maintains a pale vibrant straw yellow with green hues. It has powerful, herbaceous characters with lime overtones and is rich and complex with hints of marmalade. It is lingering, balanced and mouth filling. I cannot believe it is already 14 years old. It tastes so young and fresh, but has the potential to be an aged classic.
12.5% alcohol
2019 RIESLING
$22 per bottle – CLICK HERE TO BUY ONLINE
This small parcel of premium Riesling came from Michael Noack’s vineyard and was grown under very dry conditions over the ripening period, intensifying the fruit characters and it exhibits the structure which enable good aging.
12.0% alcohol
2014 ALEXANDER MURRAY
MERLOT, CABERNET SAUVIGNON & CABERNET FRANC
$32 per bottle – CLICK HERE TO BUY ONLINE
The grapes were sourced from Stuart Woodman’s vineyard at Springton. This was previously my vineyard and this wine is dedicated to our dad, Alexander Murray Forbes. Murray (as he was known to everybody) worked tirelessly planting, and then trellising, the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc grapes, with me, back in 1970’s. Murray’s friendly good humour always came to the fore in those long days in the vineyard.
I believe that these three varieties work particularly well in the cooler climate and terroir of the Eden Valley area.
The wine is a blend of 50% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Cabernet Franc. The soft cherry/blackberry overtones from the Merlot are supported by the complex characters generated by the Cabernet Sauvignon and topped off by the fruit lift from the Cabernet Franc. This complex bundle of flavours, with layer upon layer of berry characters, makes this wine a delight to drink either with food or on its own
13.9% alcohol
2015 ALEXANDER MURRAY
MERLOT, CABERNET SAUVIGNON & CABERNET FRANC
$32 per bottle – CLICK HERE TO BUY ONLINE
The grapes were sourced from Stuart Woodman’s vineyard. The wine is a blend of 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 11% Cabernet Franc.
The wine has a traditional Eden Valley Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot nose, with lifted aromatics and berry fruit overtones. This mouth-filling wine has an outstanding Cabernet long palate, with multiple layers of berry character. Like its predecessor, this wine is a delight to drink either with food or on its own.
14.0% alcohol
2015 ALEXANDER MURRAY
THE SPARKLING
$34 per bottle – CLICK HERE TO BUY ONLINE
The grapes were sourced from Stuart Woodman’s vineyard. This wine was produced using a portion of the 2015 Alexander Murray wine which was then put through the “champagne” process, accentuating the complexity of the wine. Sparkling red wines tend to age very well, as this one proving, so could be cellared for some time.
But it is drinking really well now, so why wait!
13.7% alcohol
Bottle Closures
Our choice is the screwcap, allowing the wine to develop fruit complexity at a gradual pace. Since 2000 we have chosen to use screwcaps to avoid what was a significant problem of “corked wines”.
This character arises from the mould sometimes generated in maturing the cork bark and can range from barely perceptible to blatantly obvious and off-putting. If the smell is not very noticeable, but the wine has been mildly affected, then a customer may just think the wine is generally not to their liking and not buy it again. Not good news for a winemaker!
At the severe end, the mouldy smell is easily picked and the customer would probably be aware that the problem lay with the cork and would be more likely to ask for a replacement of the wine.
