The Shingleback winemakers utilize innovative canopy management and progressive farming techniques to produce wines of exceptional quality and character. Shingleback Wine takes its name from one of South Australia's most loveable lizards, the Shingleback, typically found in backyard gardens including those of Shingleback owners John and Kym Davey.
Shingleback was first introduced in Australia with the 1998 vintage and has won significant acclaim since. The wines are the pride of John Davey, a veteran Australian winemaker, who has worked throughout the Barossa Valley, Langhorne Creek and Yarra Valley as well as the McLaren Vale since the early 1990s. He and his brother Kym co-manage the family’s Davey Family Vineyard.
"When you own your own vineyard and make your own wines, you manage the site right down to the individual vine," John explains. "Our goal is to produce superior fruit that will make rich, ripe and complex wines, typical of the McLaren Vale. Small batch open fermentation and minimal handling help to express the terroir of the region, allowing the essence of the grape to shine through."
The Davey Family Vineyard is located in the Willunga Basin at the southern end of the acclaimed McLaren Vale. Brothers Kym and John Davey planted their 320 acre (128 hectare) family-owned estate vineyard on land their grandfather purchased in 1959. Their goal is to produce high-quality wines from select vineyard blocks through careful, hands-on vineyard management. Superior fruit is grown by managing canopies for balance through a moveable foliage wire system; hand-pruning; precise deficit irrigation and integrated pest management and attention to detail.
70% of the vineyard area is planted with selected clones of Shiraz , with the balance of plantings including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Semillon. Rows are planted north to south to capture maximum sunlight. Vines are trained "one up - one down" to cover 10 feet (3 metres) of cordon wire. This reduces shoot crowding and controls vigor resulting in balanced canopies. Spacing is 5 feet (1.5 metres) between vines and 10 feet (3 metres) between rows.
Winemaker John Davey handcrafts his wines from vine to bottle selecting a percentage of his family's finest estate-grown grapes each vintage to make the wines of Shingleback. He describes himself as a “minimalist winemaker” who seeks to capture the true character of the McLaren Vale by avoiding excessive manipulation and treating wines gently from fermentation through aging.
A graduate of South Australia’s Roseworthy College with a degree in enology, John worked for 15 years as a winemaker in Australia including the Barossa, Langhorne Creek and Yarra Valley . In 1995 he returned home to the McLaren Vale to join his brother Kym for the planting of the Davey Family Vineyard, named after their maternal grandfather, on property the family had owned for five decades.
