Amulet Vineyard produces the most diverse range of wines made by a family-owned vineyard in Beechworth. Both Italian and French grape varieties are planted on the elevated cool site in the foothills of the Victorian Alps, among hills and bushland. About 15 acres of vines are planted on gentle slopes at an elevation of 350 metres on decomposed granitic soils. There is minimal herbicide and foliage spraying, and no pesticide use. The wines are hand crafted on site. Intervention in the winery is kept to a minimum, the focus at Amulet is to deliver high quality fruit from the vineyard, so that the grapes and musts reflect the site without much further ‘working’. The cellar door and tasting area is set in a modern Australian-style building with sweeping views through valleys in all directions. Weekend lunches featuring local produce complement the innovative range of wine styles grown, made and sold on site.
The first vines were planted at the Fighting Gully Road vineyard site in 1997. The farm, mostly unimproved, was purchased in 1995 and the following two years were spent clearing the property of scrub, stumps and many thousands of rabbits.
After establishing a vineyard on colluvial slopes overlooking the Ovens river valley with his brothers in 1988, Marks interest in even cooler climate viticulture led him to elevated Beechworth plateau that can be clearly seen from the original vineyard.
Cabernet Sauvignon and a small plot of Merlot were the first vines planted, followed by Pinot Noir in the following year.
The site rises up to the top of the escarpment above the Murmungee basin, to the south of the town of Beechworth. The north and west facing lower slopes were planted to the red Bordeaux varieties; while the upper and east facing slopes were planted to Pinot Noir.
Situated minutes from the centre of Beechworth, Haldon Winery blends the latest wine making knowledge with traditional techniques to create exceptional wines characteristic of this beautiful region. Our first vines were planted in 2010 and the vineyard is managed along organic principles to create beautiful wines.
The Indigo Vineyard is located 12km’s from Beechworth in the foothills of the Victorian Alps. Wine has been produced in the area since 1950 when the Brown Bros vineyards was planted at Everton Hills. Indigo Vineyard was established in 1999.
The wines are produced by Marc Scalzo with some small parcels made by Stuart Hordern at Brokenwood.
While Indigo Vineyard has a close association with Brokenwood who purchase more than 50% of the grapes from the vineyard, Indigo is separately owned and operated with its own philosophy based on minimum winemaker intervention to allow the characters of these soils and the region to be displayed. Only low-yielding estate grown fruit is used allowing the wines to display regional and block-specific characteristics.
Beechworth project owned by Rocco Esposito and Lisa Pidutti. The couple have purchased 60 acres of land in Beechworth and which they are currently preparing biodynamically so as to then plant their own vines.
Our vineyard is elevated at 440m (1440 feet) above sea level and is farmed along organic principles. No pesticides are used.
The soil consists of ancient granitic “buckshot” over decomposed clay. These unique gravels are rich in minerals and provide excellent drainage whilst the clay provides some sustained water to the vines in summer. This ancient, poor soil naturally limits the cropping level to less than 4.5 tons per hectare.
The vines are close planted at 7500 vines per hectare . This allows the vine to carry a smaller crop and direct all its energies to producing intense flavours and wonderful textures - traits that are found primarily in only outstanding vineyards.
This unique combination of soil, climate and viticulture provides Savaterre with intense fruit of the very highest quality. The grapes are hand picked in the cool of the autumn morning and transported to the winery which is next to the vineyard.
Savaterre's vineyard has been named in the top 25 vineyards in Australia. Vintage occurs between mid-March and mid-April depending on the season.
The Ninth Mile vineyard and winery is located within the Beechworth cool climate wine growing district, just outside the small town of Stanley, about 45 minutes drive south east from Albury Wodonga. This boutique winery was established in 2002 and has already created a name for itself locally, as well as in Melbourne and interstate.
We have long shared a wine interest with our attention more often than not grasped by structure. I guess it is no coincidence that this is reflected in the wines we choose to make. We produce Traviarti Nebbiolo from our home vineyard, Chardonnay from the Black Springs Vineyard, Black Springs Nebbiolo and the Rosso from Everton Hills Estate fruit. We aspire to wines that are moreish, complex, textured and balanced.
Vignerons Schmölzer & Brown is the wine and life partnership of Tessa Brown, winemaker and viticulturist & Jeremy Schmölzer, Architect. We planted our vineyard, Thorley, in the highest altitude part of the Beechworth GI in 2014 and 2015. We both work in the vineyard and winery to grow vines and make wines with precision, balance and drinkability. We're working at reducing synthetic inputs in the vineyard and winemaking process, also.
We make a range of wines from Beechworth, the King Valley, and occasionally the Alpine Valleys as we've been waiting for our own property to reach maturity. The Thorley wines are solely from our farm. The Brunnen vineyard is a tiny parcel of vines across the road from us owned by our neighbours, which we've been working with since 2014. The Obstgarten wines are from a high altitude Riesling vineyard in Whitlands, King Valley. Our Prêt-à-Blanc, Prêt-à-Rosé and Prêt-à-Rouge wines are all blends, assembled with an eye to easy drinking.
Virago wine combines the intrigue of the sensual grape variety, Nebbiolo, with the unique terroir of Beechworth.
Virago Vineyard is planted on a moderately inclined, north-west facing slope at an altitude of 270 metres. In 2007, a combination of six different Lambia clones were planted on the one acre vineyard. The 2000 nebbiolo vines were planted by hand, and all pruning, trimming, fruit-thinning, soil tilling and picking is also done by hand each year to ensure a low yield of the highest quality fruit.
Karen Coats was a tax accountant in her previous life, but her passion for Nebbiolo and the Beechworth wine region have made Virago Vineyard her new office of choice. Karen is in her final year of a six year Bachelor of Wine Science degree program at Charles Sturt University. Prue Keith is an orthopaedic surgeon by day, night, and weekend, and devotes her free time (that is not occupied by mountain biking, skiing, and trekking to the peaks of mountains) to Virago Vineyard.
Rick Kinzbrunner may be best known for his Giaconda Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but he also produces a Giaconda Nebbiolo, having been lured in by the complexity of this seductive grape variety. Rick makes our Virago Nebbiolo in the traditional Italian method. The wine remains on skins for an extended period in a large concrete tank, is then basket pressed and transferred to a 1,600 litre Italian Bota cask for approximately three years of ageing.
The Piedmont region of northern Italy is the viticultural home of nebbiolo, and the site where the distinguished nebbiolo based wines, Barolo and Barbaresco, are produced. Nebbiolo produces lightly-colored red wines which can be highly tannic in their youth, and intensely aromatic with a bouquet that is often described as “tar and roses”. As the wines age, they take on a characteristic brick-orange hue and reveal other aromas and flavors such as violets, wild herbs, cherries, raspberries, truffles and tobacco.
