2021 Adelaide Hills Syrah - a story of people, place & culture

2021 Adelaide Hills Syrah - a story of people, place & culture

We are extremely proud to release our 2021 Adelaide Hills Syrah this month. It is a real collaboration of country, people and passion. We almost can’t believe sometimes how much heart goes into each new wine we craft and how lucky we are to work with such amazing produce and creative talent.

​THE LABEL ARTIST

Damien Coulthard is an Adnyamathanha man from the Northern Flinders and Gammon Ranges in South Australia; a sacred place of immense social and environmental significance to the Adnyamathanha people. Damien’s paintings share family narratives that have existed for millennia, embedded in the Yarta (diverse landscapes) as a record and reminder for all diversities and identities of the unique and continuous - spiritual and cultural connection Aboriginal people have to Country.

OUR PART

Our first Syrah from “Hillenvale”, a special site, just East of Kangarilla, in the Adelaide Hills wine region. Vineyard was first established in 1999, 400 metres above sea level with breathtaking views out to Kuitpo Forest and the Gulf St. Vincent beyond.

Planted in 1999, the vines are a 1654 clone on a westerly aspect, underlain by red gravel loam, siltstone and quartzite, a very structural and deep site, from the Burra Group of Geology, circa 750 million years old. 

Certified sustainable vineyard and fruit, regeneratively grown and picked early for a cool, gentle whole berry ferment. Finished in new and old 500L French Puncheons and bottled in December 2021. Aged in bottle for six months prior to this release. 

Lifted, fresh and transparent, as a veil of blueberry, sapid red cherry and nori is given flutter by pepper-doused acidity and a clench of tension. 

The team has never felt so connected to a wine in our short history so far. It is not traditional, but holistic, a landscape of a wine. 

LABEL STORY FROM ARTIST DAMIEN COULTHARD

The Flinders and Gammon Ranges is home to the Adnyamathanha Nation. Here custodians share our Yura Muda, including many cultural expressions which relate to sacred, social and environmental histories. It is important to recognise, our people believe our Yarta, ancestral landscapes, have been created by significant spirit creators, linking people to place.

The Hither & Yon, Syrah label embodies place with the use of a natural pigment harvested respectfully from an ochre mine site nestled in the Northern Flinders Ranges. Ochre from this site has been harvested and traded for many family generations, a site to teach kinship histories as well as being used for its medicinal properties to embody harvesting tools with powers. 

The dot formation on the canvas depicts the journey by ancestral spirit creators across various Aboriginal Nations from Adnyamathanha Yarta through Nukunu and Ngaduri to Kaurna Yarta, with their imprint embedded in the geology and vast landscapes past, present and future.  The Ampersand, is symbolic to our shared histories, shared experiences and seasonal movement by Yura’s (people) travelling across Country.

Damien’s original work now proudly adorns the wall of our cellar door in Willunga.

ONGOING FRIENDSHIP

We like to partner long term and give back to our artist community, so we are very happy to be joining Damien and his partner, Rebecca, along with their Warndu business, at the Quandong Festival on Nukunu Country in Quorn, Flinders Ranges on August 6 2022. 

We will be there pouring our Syrah along with some of our other carbon neutral & certified sustainable drops. Should be a great time, see you there?

We hope you appreciate the tapestry of it all, thank you for joining us on this journey.

You can order the 2021 Adelaide Hills Syrah here.


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