Airline pilots make surprisingly good wine. Their appreciation of the sciences, a respect for the weather and a bird's eye view of the land, all invaluable to the winemaker's art. John Ellis would take every opportune weekend away from his regular New York Paris route, to pursue a passion for viticulture. He planted the first commercial Cabernet Merlot vines in the Hamptons and found time between trans atlantic flights to work vintages amongst the Grand Cru vineyards of La Bourgogne. Ellis ultimately made the great lifelong sea change in favour of our land downunder. He settled on a farmstead outside Leongatha, amongst the slow ripening pastures of Gippsland and established a vineyard called Bellvale. It is now a place of fully mature vines and old world..
Placing pinot amongst the pastures»
Unico Zelo are an old world style of winemaking co-operative, a congress of Adelaide Hills family growers who take their work seriously, to ensure that their harvests are fashioned into a range of exquisite, artisanally crafted limited edition wines. Italian varietals are the specialty, a class of grapes which grow magnificently within the premier precincts of Adelaide Hills, eco friendly to local flora and fauna, they bloom wonderfully in the parched, unirrigated mesoclimes of native Australia. Made to measure for enthusiasts of the small batch Adelaide Hills style, aficianados of Italianate chic and gourmands at large, the wines of Unico Zelo raise the fruit of dedicated growers to stellar heights, worthy of accompanying the most splendid fare...
The adelaide collective of veteran vignerons»
Major Sir Thomas Mitchell left more than just an invaluable bequeth of our nation's most detailed frontier maps. Mitchell distinguished himself in Wellington's army during the Napoleonic wars in the renowned 95th Baker Rifles. A gifted draftsman, he found his way to the nascent colonies of Australia, where his acumen at mapmaking won him the office of Surveyor General. During one of Mitchell's historical expeditions, he charted the fertile lands around Victoria's Goulburn Valley, establishing the colonial fruitgrowing township of Mitchell's Town. The district's auspicious orchards flourished until Colin Preece identified the region as an opportune place to grow world class wine. Vineyards thusly planted around the Goulburn billabongs, came to be known as..
Barriques between the billabongs»
