Our Wines
A Yarra Valley winery
We are classified as a Yarra Valley winery even though our vineyards are not located on the valley floor but instead are located in the rolling hills of the Nillumbik region of the Yarra Valley. In our area, the soil is shallow loamy soil and we need to drip-irrigate our vines for the hotter summer days.
Wine production
All our wines are produced at our Shaws Road Winery in Arthurs Creek. The fruit is all hand-picked, and we use a large membrane press to press the grapes, and a variety of fermenters (ranging from picking bins to 4000L stainless steel tanks), to produce individual batches from our three vineyards (Eltham, Arthurs Creek and Strathewen). The wine is stored in premium oak barriques (French, European and American oaks) in our below-ground cellar. The wines are tasted and ranked and then blended prior to bottling using (generally) screw caps. Our current production level is over 1,000 cases per year.
The Winemakers
All our wines are made by George Apted Snr, John Graves and Karl Helper with assistance from George Apted Jnr. The winemakers have been producing commercial vintages together since 1990 and have produced award winning Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet wines.
Our Wines
Sparkling Chardonnay / Pinot Noir
The sparkling wines are made using the traditional “Methode Champenoise”. The grapes are picked early when slightly under-ripe and the wine is blended at Shaws Road Winery before being shipped off-site for specialist bottling and stored on lees for 5 years or more.
Chardonnay
Chardonnay is our signature wine and is made in the traditional French style, that is barrel-fermented and given full malolactic fermentation, then stored in French oak for 12 months to achieve a rich soft style of wine.
Sauvignon Blanc
The Sauvignon Blanc wine is barrel-fermented in French oak for around five months then bottled under screw caps.From grapes grown at our Strathewen vineyard, this wine is typically ripe in flavour with white peach and lime notes and a slight acidity.
Rosé
A light bodied wine made from Pinot Noir fruit, the wine incorporates some of the colour from the grape skins, but not enough to be called a red wine. This results in a delicate wine in both colour and flavour.
Pinot Noir
Our Pinot Noir is produced in small parcels from the various vineyards then stored in a combination of new and used oak barriques for up to fifteen months. At this stage the various barrels of Pinot are blended by the winemakers to achieve the optimum balance of fruit and oak characters.
Merlot
Some years the Merlot grapes are used to produce a single varietal wine, and some years are combined with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc to make a blended wine. The Merlot single varietal wine is produced by aging the wine in a combination of French and American oak barriques for a minimum of 12 months.
Cabernet Sauvignon
The Cabernet Sauvignon is aged in a combination of new and old French and American oak barriques for a minimum of two years prior to bottling then stored for a further period in the bottle, to allow the wine to develop. It results in a medium to full-bodied wine, fruit forward with medium acidity.
Cabernet Sauvignon Franc Merlot
This wine is blended from separately fermented parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot, and matured in small French oak barriques. The wine is then blended to achieve a balanced “Bordeaux” style wine that is full of complexity.
Shiraz
The production volume of Shiraz is very small (most of the vines were lost in the 2019 Black Saturday bushfire) but the wine produced is outstanding. The wine is aged in high quality tight grained medium toast French oak barriques for a minimum of two years prior to bottling, then stored for a further period to allow the wine to develop.