• Delivery
Wine clubWine clubWine clubWine club
  • Gift registry
  • Wishlist
  • FAQs
Geoff Hardy's family have been making Australian wine since 1857. Geoff grew up amongst the most distinguished vineyards in our land and he knows from good red wine. He retains access to the finest fruit in McLaren Vale and is the man behind many of our nation's most memorable vintages. Undercover is a moniker that Geoff has assigned to a collation of exceptional parcels, albeit bottled behind an abstruse label to secrete the provenance of a spectacular Shiraz. Gold Medal Winner & Best Value at the hotly contested 2016 China Wine & Spirit Awards, the pick of crop this week, seriously.. Sound shiraz for the savvy & shrewd»
An illustrious vineyard winery of great historical import, the Kay Brothers Amery property is planted to sacred vines which can be traced back to cuttings transplanted from the original Hardy site at Tintara. Holding pride of place as one of Mclaren Vale's first commercial vineyards, the winemaking practices at Kay Brothers have remained largely unchanged since establishment in the nineteenth century. An ancient basket press, painted bright red, is still employed to gently crush grapes in the traditional old world way. The exquisite Kay Brothers range remains one of the most sensational values in superior vintages of new world wine, the fruit of distinguished old vines, family operated since.. The essence & excellence of old mclaren vale vines»
William James Maxwell was an architectural sculptor who migrated from Scotland to Australia in 1875. He built a mock castle and established a family vineyard just outside Adelaide, which he named Woodlands Park. His son planted vines in nearby McLaren Vale and his grandson served a term as winemaker for Hardy Wines at the historic Tintara wineworks. William Maxwell's progeny remain in McLaren Vale, producing the southern hemisphere's most successful brands of Honey Mead, as well as vintages of the most extraordinary value in McLaren Vale Shiraz. But what does Maxwell taste like? Gentleman James Halliday describes Maxwell as robust, picking the eyes out of McLaren Vale shiraz; licorice, dark chocolate,.. Made of mature vine mclaren vale »
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.. Barriques between the billabongs»

Majella Coonawarra Merlot CONFIRM VINTAGE

Merlot Coonawarra South Australia
Coonawarra Merlot is every bit as elegant, fragrant and generously proportioned as the mighty Cabernet, often assembled together for a rounded, softer style of red, Merlot provides a plummy, chamois tannined option when bottled as a pure varietal wine. Majella take their duty to the soil and environment very seriously, they are as fastidious about the health of local flora and fauna, as they are about maintaining the purity and hygiene of their fruit. The dividends come in the form of an immaculate Merlot wine of faultless varietal eloquence and graceful regional charm.
Available in cartons of six
Case of 6
$215.50
Majella are a quiet Coonawarra achiever, having provided fruit to the most prestigious national brands for decades. They decided to reserve the pick of their crop for bottling under their own estate label and have since established a peerles reputation for quality, consistency and value. Merlot is harvested and vinified before filling to a high proportion of new French oak barrels for completion of ferments, a course of malolactic and fifteen months maturation.
Deep, brooding red. Perfumed plum and floral nose, strawberry and anise notes over a background of suet cake and cocoa vanilla oak. A very refined and elegant wine, defining the allure of good Merlot fruit throughout the palate, varietal leaf, a little ferrous Coonawarra earthiness and forest floor characters providing interest, smooth plummy tannins in support of the excellent length and finely aromatic finish.
Merlot
121 - 132 of 278
«back 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 next»
121 - 132 of 278
«back 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 next»
Majella
The Lynn family have been residents of the Penola - Coonawarra district for over four generations, starting out as Store-Keepers and then graduating into grazing

The property on which Majella now stands was originally owned by Frank Lynn, and bought by his nephew, George, in 1960. George and Pat Lynn kept Merinos for wool production on their farm about ten miles away, and had always wanted some good Coonawarra country for their up-and-coming prime lamb enterprise. Viticulture, however, was not on their agenda until 1968.

Majella

George had always been great friends with Eric Brand. Eric had just started producing his wines under the Laira label and was selling some wine to the Hardy wine company. Brian was interested in planting a vineyard on the Majella property and in 1968 went ahead and planted 6 acres of Shiraz. Eric offered to buy the grapes to produce wine for Hardy's and the future looked rosy. There wasn't a lot of money in it, but it complemented the sheep enterprise, so eventually some 70 acres were planted - about 60% Shiraz and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon.

However, all good things come to an end, and the Hardy deal fell through just as the vines were maturing. Things were tight in the 70's. Demand for grapes, particularly Shiraz was very low, and there were a couple of years when 30 or more tonnes of premium Shiraz grapes were left to rot.

This was the start of a long relationship between Wynn's and Majella, a relationship that continued for over 20 years. Since 1989 Majella have continued planting new vineyards and at present have about 150 acres under vine. Most of the new plantings have been Cabernet Sauvignon, but there are some small areas of Merlot and Riesling planted as well.

Majella

The Majella winegrowers had always made a bit of wine up from their own select grapes, and knew that the quality was very good. After prompting from many of their peers, in 1991 they made up 600 cases or so of Shiraz.

The wine was vintaged at Brand's "Laira" winery (the link with Brand's won't go away) under the ever watchful eye of their winemaker, Bruce Gregory. This hit the market in 1993 and was received exceptionally well. The wine was good, the packaging looked good and the release sold out in no time.

Majella's production level soon reached the stage where new winemaking facilities were warranted, and high tech winemaking equipment was installed. Bruce Gregory joined as winemaker in January 1999 and produced a crackerjack vintage first up.

What happened to the sheep? They're still there although there's not much money in wool these days. The Majella winemakers still run about 3,500 Merino wethers on their remote farm south-west of Penola and raise about 400 prime lambs at Coonawarra.

Majella