Altezza Vineyard – Adelaide Hills
In March 2003, our quest for a prime white wine vineyard site in the Adelaide Hills South Australia, to complement our red wine vineyard in Langhorne Creek, was realised. We had auspiciously discovered a magnificent 15 Hectare property perched up on some of the highest (550-600m), steepest and coolest slopes near Mt Lofty.
Apart from the 10 Ha of natural pristine bush-land, orchard and market-gardens had been cultivated on the property by the Moulds family since the 1850’s, who supplied Adelaide’s East End markets only 15 km away.The site possesses two steep, north-facing amphitheatres, both with well-drained rocky soils comprising of a mosaic of shale, quartz, sandstone, ironstone and silt. The mean average growing season temperature of 15.6C is comparable to that of Burgundy and Alsace in France. The high annual rainfall of 42 inches (1050mm) allows the vineyard to be dry grown.
In 2004 and 2005 a total area of 3.2 Hectares was planted at high density (8000 vines/Ha) to the highest quality clones (13 in total), most new to Australia, of four white varieties. The vines are grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides and pesticides. The vineyard is hand pruned and hand harvested and yields are kept low (averaging 3.3 tonnes/Ha or 20hl/Ha or 460g/vine) in order to maximise quality. As with Casa Freschi’s red wines, the winemaking approach is one of minimal intervention to allow the site’s characteristics to be seen in its purest form in bottle.
Profondo Vineyard – Langhorne Creek
The Profondo vineyard consists of two main parts, 2.5 hectares planted in 1972 to Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Malbec, and 2.0 hectares planted in 1999 to Nebbiolo.
The secret to the exceptionally high quality wines produced from this site lies in the combination of a number of factors. The calcareous soils with a mix of clay, loam, sand on a subsoil of clay, marl and gravel. The strong cooling influence from the large freshwater Lake Alexandrina 4km to the south and 8km east, also adjacent to the great southern Ocean. The vine age and quality of the vine material – the Cabernet, Shiraz and Malbec are mass selections of ancient material from the original Potts vineyards first established in the 1850’s; the nebbiolo vineyard is planted to the highest quality Piedmont clones (10 in total) available in Australia on a number of rootstocks and own-roots. In total there are 22 different plantings providing a multitude of blending options for each label. The final factor is the way the vines are managed, in harmony with nature (The vines are grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides and pesticides), with low vigour open canopies and very small yields.