Everyone has an origin story, but the concept is mostly forgotten when it comes to wine.
Grandiose labels full of gold-medal stickers grant the consumer wisdom the winemaker is behind that magic swirling in their mouth.
The vineyard of Swinney Wines in the Great Southern wine region of Frankland River.
Great wines require meticulous nurturing in the vineyard before they are nourished and bottled. Months of toil in the vineyard precede finite tweaks of the winemaker.
As winemakers increasingly adopt minimalistic techniques to craft better wines, many top-end products have never been more reflective of the vineyard than today.
Recognition of Australia’s special sites and the fastidious management and long labour of the vines was the premise behind Young Gun of Wine’s inaugural Vineyard of the Year award.
After 50 vineyards across Australia were announced as finalists in December 2020 and several on-site assessments made, an expert panel deliberated.
They found their winner, four hours south of Perth.
The 160-hectare vineyard on 2000 hectares of Frankland River property is run by fourth-generation farmers, contract growers and recently winemakers the Swinney family.
Their plantings have long been used by some of the country’s most iconic brands such as Penfolds and Hardys and, closer to home, Castelli and Amelia Park, among many others, with considerable effort in the vineyard made to meet particular demands of wineries they contract grow for.
The Swinney family pursued several agricultural interests since the farm was established in 1922 by the great-grandfather of siblings Matt and Janelle Swinney, who have since pivoted to viticulture, planting non-trellised bush vines of grenache and mourvedre in the late 1990s (an arduous task that has continued with other varieties) and establishing their eponymous label, with those wines now celebrated widely in their own right.
The first vintage from those bush vines – the 2018 Farvie Grenache – was heralded by the world’s best wine critics and repositioned the potential of the variety in WA, if grown right.
Winemaker Matt Swinney, viticulturist Lee Haselgrove among the vineyards of Swinney Wines in the Great Southern wine region of Frankland River.
The four major trophy winners of the Vineyard of the Year awards exemplified the role origin has in shaping quality and character.
Judge Max Allen said they were a great opportunity to shift the focus of wine from how it was made to how the grapes were grown.
“The [judging] experience was both exciting and frustrating. Exciting because it made me realise – or, rather, reminded me – how much great work is being done out there in vineyards across Australia,” he said.
“They go to such extraordinary lengths to look after their land, to make their vines more resilient, to produce better, more distinctive wine.
“And frustrating because it was almost impossible to narrow such a strong field down to just four.”
Mr Swinney told WAtoday the winemaking and viticultural team were extremely proud and humbled by the acknowledgement and paid particular homage to long-term Swinney Wines viticulturist Lee Haselgrove.