Hay Shed Hill|Margaret River|Premium Wines

The Hay Shed Hill vineyard lies in the heart of the acclaimed Willyabrup triangle in the Margaret River wine region. Hay Shed Hill is a classic site first planted in 1973 during the pioneer days of the local wine industry. Planted with the varieties that have established the reputation of Margaret River as a world class wine producing area the Hay Shed Hill vineyard produces low yields of outstanding fruit from fully mature vines, combined with world best practice winemaking to produce flavoursome wines of great depth that reflect the character and essence of this wonderful site. Old Vines Modern Wines.

Vintage 2011

The 2011 vintage in Margaret River, and across Western Australia in general, was remarkable if only for how completely different it was to the rest of Australia’s grape growing regions. It has always been of some consternation to us in the West that the quality of Australian vintages is assessed on what happens in the middle and east of the country, with Western Australia so far away and influenced by completely independent weather systems we often experience vastly different conditions that shape the quality of our vintages and wines.

Although one of the driest and warmest summers on record, the vintage of 2011 in Margaret River will be remembered as a very successful, very early and very clean vintage with no disease pressure. The main pressure of the vintage was more logistic with grapes experiencing generally earlier ripening which put pressure on the ability of wineries to crush and process the fruit.

The winter of 2010 was disappointing with low rainfall meaning vineyards entered the summer of 2011 with drier than normal soil moisture profiles, combined with the hotter than normal temperatures of spring and early summer vineyards were potentially under water stress quite early in the season. It is something of a paradox that it is in these dry and warm years that the older unirrigated (dry grown) vineyards outperform the younger irrigated vineyards. Vineyards like Hay Shed Hill, planted in the 70s on good dirt with no irrigation have had decades to build up substantial deep root systems that do not rely on surface moisture. In contrast younger vineyards that have been irrigated from inception do not build the depth if root systems and are more reliant on the moisture in the top half metre of soil. In a very warm dry year like 2011 it is very difficult for these vineyards to apply enough irrigation to keep the vines in balance. So it was that we saw some of the younger irrigated vineyards losing leaf condition earlier than desirable while vineyards like Hay Shed Hill maintained leaf quality and function right through to harvest thus maximizing the inputs into the fruit.

The result of this fine vintage was excellent fruit across all varieties. The earlier varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon were bright and expressive while the reds had ample sun to develop wonderful colour and fruit intensity. Michael Kerrigan.

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Winemaking

Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon grapes from the Hay Shed Hill vineyard were used in making this wine. Only free run juice was used, this component of the juice is the highest in quality with the most intense fruit expression and the lowest in undesirable phenolic skin characters. Fermentation in stainless steel tanks at low temperature without the use of oak preserved and highlighted the finer fruit characters of these aromatic varieties.

Colour

The wine displays fresh green tinges to a very pale straw colour.

Nose

Typical cool-climate Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon aromas of lively tropical fruits and fresh herbaceous grassy characters make up an intense bouquet.

Palate

The palate is fresh and lively with classic Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon characters and a fine structure that are an indication both of the quality of the vintage and of the use of only free-run juice. 
 
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