Heathcote, Victoria

Overview

The Heathcote wine region, nestled between the Goulburn Valley and Bendigo regions, is famous as a premium Shiraz producing area. Like many parts of central Victoria, it was largely used for sheep grazing, followed by gold mining, before wine production began. The first vines appeared in the 1860s, but it was not until the 1960s that the real wave of development occurred.

The Big Picture

Heathcote is recognised as a producer of extraordinary Shiraz wines, even rivalling those of the Rhone Valley from where the grape cuttings were originally sourced, and is home to  winemakers who have achieved international fame for their representations of Australian Shiraz. However, other red wines of quality also have emerged, as well as whites such as Chardonnay and Viognier.

Heathcote wines are perceived as exclusive, not only because of their extremely high quality, but because of the difficulty in obtaining them.  

Heathcote Wine Region

Climate

Heathcote's climate and soils are strongly influenced by the Mt Camel Range, which runs from Corop in the north to Tooborac in the south, providing natural tunneling for the prevailing cool, south to south-east winds that blow throughout the growing period from October to March. The result is summer temperatures two to three degrees lower than the peaks for nearby Bendigo, and a cooler mean January temperature. Rainfall is surprisingly even during the year and, thanks to the hillside location of most vineyards, spring frost is seldom a problem.

Soil

While there is significant soil variation in the region, the slopes of the Mt Camel Range comprise a superb red soil with fine structure overlying uniformly textured red calcareous sodic clay soils. Confusingly for laymen, these soils are known as Cambrian Greenstones and, in their local manifestation, as the Heathcote Greenstone Belt.

Wines

Shiraz: Few would argue that Heathcote's conjunction of climate and soil produces world-class Shiraz with a unique character. It is deep, rich and velvety, with cascades of dark cherry plum and sweetly spicy fruit, and ripe but fine tannins giving texture and sustaining length. It is hardly necessary to add that such wines age superbly. Indeed, the end point is yet to be determined, given that most of the wineries date from the mid 1970s, and many of the Shiraz plantings are less than 20 years old.

Cabernet Sauvignon: Further proving that this is red wine country, the Cabernet Sauvignon style is rich and generous, with blackberry aromatics and flavours, without any hint of the herbaceous. Some of the central Victorian eucalypt-mint character can make its presence felt in some vintages. Merlot, the third most important variety, is very much a handmaiden to Cabernet Sauvignon, rather than a varietal in its own right.

Vital Statistics

A Case In Point: Stephen Shelmerdine, Chief Executive, Shelmerdine, Heathcote, Victoria

"While Heathcote is a recently defined wine region, its history commences at the start of European settlement in central Victoria, with vineyards in Tooborac in 1858, in the Heathcote township during the Gold Rush, and on the Mt Camel Range in the 1860s. However, vineyards had disappeared from the landscape by the 1920s and it was not until the late 1960s and early 1970s that viticultural activity began, signalling the resurgence of the Heathcote wine industry.

"Today, the Heathcote region spans more than 80 kilometres from north to south and 40 kilometres from east to west, and is home to over 100 individual vineyards with a total of 1,880 hectares under vine.

"With a climate reminiscent of the Rhone Valley and its diversity of soil types, geology and topography, Heathcote produces a range of wines, but is most renowned for the complex, rich and intense Shirazes grown on the 500-million-year-old, Cambrian-era red soils north of Heathcote along the Mt Camel Range.

"The Shelmerdine family commenced farming at Merindoc, on the granite soils at Tooborac, in southern Heathcote, in 1956. In 1994, the family, as passionate viticulturalists, pioneered the replanting of vines at Tooborac, and in 1997 they planted a new vineyard on the red soils at Colbinabbin.

"However, as Ross and Marigold Shelmerdine were, along with legendary winemaker Colin Preece, founders of the Mitchelton Winery at Nagambie, and the family was fully involved with Mitchelton until 2001, it was not until 2002 that the new Shelmerdine Wine Company released its first Heathcote Shiraz.

"Today, three generations of the Shelmerdine family produce wines of finesse, balance and structure. Fine, aromatic, minerally Viognier and Riesling and intense, opulent Shiraz/Viognier from the cool, granite soils and southern hillsides from the iconic Merindoc vineyard at Tooborac. Deeply coloured and textured Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are produced from the unique, northern, red soils at Colbinabbin.

"The Shelmerdine artisanal philosophy is very much about respecting terroir and preserving site, season and vineyard authenticity as well as varietal purity, moderate alcohol, and restrained use of 100% French oak."

Summary

The Heathcote region, nestled between the Goulburn Valley and Bendigo regions, is widely recognised as a premium Shiraz producing area, with vines grown in the region since the 1860s.  

Acknowledgements

Victorian Wine Industry Association

Wineries, Cellar Doors & Vineyards

Armstead Estate, Banksia Grove Wine, Barnadown Run, Barfold Estate, Downing Estate Vineyard, Eppalock Ridge, Galli Estate Winery, Heathcote Winery, Huntleigh Vineyards, Jasper Hill Vineyard, McIvor Creek Wines, Milvine Estate Wines, Mt Toolleen, Munari Wines, Paul Osicka Wines, Red Edge, Redesdale Estate, Rouges Lane Vineyard, Sanguine Estate, Shelmerdine, St Michael's Vineyard, Wanted Man and Wild Duck Creek Estate.

If you would like to have your winery included in this list, please email awbc@awbc.com.au.