Solitary Vineyards

Our second small joint venture is between ADW and South Australian wine investors Guy and Simon White. Our focus here is on producing only limited volumes of super premium, single vineyard/single varietal reds. Solitary Vineyards Pty Ltd, as the company is known, will limit its production to between 50-300 cases of any one wine under this label.

The 2004 vintage first release (due late 2006) wines and the subsequent 2005 wines are both from Block 560 in Greenock Creek , Barossa Valley . From the 2006 vintage there will be four specialist reds. These will be two shirazes from Marananga and Kalimna and two grenaches from Rowland Flat and Onkaparinga Hills.

Reveiw from - James Halliday - Australian Wine Companion 2008

Solitary Block Greenock Creek Shiraz 2004 : Five stars

"Full red-purple, has very complex texture, structure and flavour; black fruit, quality oak, and extremely fine, persistent tannins and good length all play their part." Cork. 15% alc. Rating 95. To 2019 $45.

2005 Solitary Block Barossa Valley Greenock Creek Shiraz

2004 - Sold out

In 2003 our production and export company Australian Domaine Wines (Ben and Mario Barletta with Ken James and Rory O'Neil) joined with friends and wine investors Guy and Simon White to create a small joint venture winemaking project known as Solitary Vineyards . It's focus is source small parcels of outstanding varietal fruit from selected, single/solitary vineyard sources and craft individually charactered, solitary varietal wines.  

The choice of vineyard is open ended as such with the search criteria being simply ‘superior' in region and site. Varietal choice is easily made as the partners are all Shiraz and Grenache devotees. Beyond that the winemaking philosophy has been to maintain careful control and stringent selection. Processing, winemaking and maturation are all undertaken at Pikes Winery in Clare Valley under the technical direction of our consultant, friend and well known maker Neil Pike.

Timing for each release is also non specific as each wine will not be rushed as it must reflect that vintage's own special development characters. The results then reflect an individual interpretation that is jointly agreed.

 Our first releases were a 2004 Shiraz and Grenache from the Greenock Creek sub-region of the Barossa Valley . Our new 2005 vintage releases are again a Shiraz and Grenache from the same outstanding vineyard. From 2006 we will have two Barossa Shirazes, one from Kalimna and another from Marananga. Teamed with this will be two 2006 Grenaches, one being from Rowland Flat in the Barossa and the other from Onkaparinga Hills.

The 2005 Shiraz was again sourced from the outstanding Block 560 Vineyard within the Barossa Valley sub-region of Greenock Creek. The site is red loam over red clay with scattered Ironstone.

Again in 2005 the low yielding fruit underwent a 9 day ferment with a short period of post ferment maceration before going to a mix of new and 2-3 year old French Oak barriques for about 18 months. It was racked/returned twice and bottled unfiltered.

It has produced a dense red-purple hued Shiraz showing complex aromas of blackberries, white pepper spice and fine, high quality mid-char French Oak. The palate is seamless sweet dark-berry fruit with a savoury, long fine finish. Excellent natural acid balance that lifts the full palate at the end.

ANALYSIS

Specific Gravity 0.9946
Alcohol 15.7% v/v
VA 0.68 g/L
TA 7.4 g/L
SO2-Free/Total 17/61 mg/L
RS 0.84 g/L pH 3.60

2005 Solitary Block Barossa Valley Greenock Creek Grenache

2004 - Sold out

In 2003 our production and export company Australian Domaine Wines (Ben and Mario Barletta with Ken James and Rory O’Neil) joined with friends and wine investors Guy and Simon White to create a small joint venture winemaking project known as Solitary Vineyards. It’s focus is source small parcels of outstanding varietal fruit from selected, single/solitary vineyard sources and craft individually charactered, solitary varietal wines.

The choice of vineyard is open ended as such with the search criteria being simply ‘superior’ in region and site. Varietal choice is easily made as the partners are all Shiraz and Grenache devotees. Beyond that the winemaking philosophy has been to maintain careful control and stringent selection. Processing, winemaking and maturation are all undertaken at Pikes Winery in Clare Valley under the technical direction of our consultant, friend and well known maker Neil Pike.

Timing for each release is also non specific as each wine will not be rushed as it must reflect that vintage’s own special development characters. The results then reflect an individual interpretation that is jointly agreed.

Our first releases were a 2004 Shiraz and Grenache from the Greenock Creek sub-region of the Barossa Valley. Our new 2005 releases are again a Shiraz and Grenache from Block 560 in Greenock Creek, Barossa Valley. In 2006 we have two Barossa Shirazes, from the sub-regions of Kalimna and Marananga and two Grenaches, one from Rowland Flat in the Barossa and the other from Onkaparinga Hills south of Adelaide.

As with the previous vintage the 2005 fruit was cold soaked for 4 days and open vat fermented for 10 days, basket pressed and then into 2-year old French Oak where it received 18 months maturation. It was racked and returned to oak twice before being bottled unfiltered.
It is an intensely coloured red with purple rim, showing lifted aromas of rich raspberries, cherry and a touch of licorice. The palate is voluptuous and viscous with persistence and excellent length. Approximately 130 dozen made.

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