The grapes for our wines are drawn from some of the oldest and most venerable vines in the Barossa.
These gnarled old veterans, dry grown on a mix of estate vineyard and family owned blocks, reflect the unique style and traditions that produce the famed Barossa Valley red wine style.
Careful chemical-free husbandry delivers to the winery fruit of the purest flavours for our wine making team to mold into fine wines that truly reflect our Barossa earth.
Harvests
KEY VARIETIES
THE REDS
The dry reds are matured in mainly French and a little American Oak, 25% of which are new each year, although, a couple of our wines recieve 100% new oak ( please refer to tasting notes). This gives rise to a cellar style which has a kiss of superb oak character – rather than a thump, and allows the rich fragrance and flavours of old dry grown Barossa vines to move to the fore.
Showing complexity from this range of vineyard sites and vinification techniques, the wines have demonstrated over the last decade an ability to cellar gracefully into mature examples of the finest Barossa styles.
THE START
At Charles Melton Wines, great emphasis is placed on the quality of fruit. All grapes are dry grown and harvested from the winery’s own 50 acres of prime Barossa vineyard land, as well as from a select group of grapegrowers.
Yields are extremely low with often only one tonne to the acre, and the vineyards are truly old with many exceeding 80 years.
A range of techniques are employed during the winemaking process. These include: whole bunch fermentation, open fermentation, pigeage and indigenous yeast fermentation. These techniques allow a range of blending options to give the most complete wine, in terms of balance, between pure fruit flavours and more earthy/gamey characters.
