Product Description
Tellurian was born of our founder Ian Hopkins passion for Heathcote shiraz. Ian’s enthusiasm was driven by the idea of crafting something fine and beautiful from Heathcote’s 550 million-year-old Cambrian soils.
Bringing together our team, winemaker Tobias Ansted and viticulturist Tim Brown, Ian’s focus on the future potential saw the first vintage of Tellurian shiraz bottled in 2008. Within four years we had completed building of an Australian shed-style winery and cellar door overlooking 32 ha of vineyards.
Shiraz was our first planting, but over time we have added Rhone varieties, Grenache, Mouverdre, Carignan, Grenache Gris, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier and Italian wines; Nero D’avola and Fiano which are perfectly suited to our continental climate.
www.tellurianwines.com.au
When Ian first approached me to join him as Tellurian winemaker I said no. Luckily Philip Moraghan, from Curly Flat called me and said you should meet up with him, he wants to make benchmark Heathcote wines.
My dream is to make expressive wines from beautiful vineyards, so I joined Ian initially in 2006 as a consultant winemaker, then made the move more formal as Tellurian winemaker from 2008. After ten years I am still deepening my understanding of the nuances of our varieties as they mature through different seasons on our lands, on different parts of our vineyard. It takes time, commitment and a bit of experimentation to make wines with personality that are recognisably of a region and place.
One of my first moves was to ask long term friend, viticulturist Tim Brown to consult on managing the vineyard to deliver best possible fruit. In 2009 we started making Tellurian wines at a small rented winery at Taradale before commencing work on our own winery at Toolleen in 2011. Starting from scratch gave us the freedom to create an incredibly simple, beautifully flexible set-up.
If we want to do 100% whole bunch pressing, no problem, we just move our elevators around and tip everything in. If we want to destem everything first we can do that too.
I came into the wine industry straight out of school knowing nothing about the industry, from a family whose wine drinking extended to Chestnut Teal and Ben Ean Moselle. My ambition was to work outdoors. During my last year of school I worked at Lark Hill winery, where the family encouraged my interest in winemaking and revealed a world connected to the land that would offer me incredible diversity in my life and career. I also worked at Farmer Bros Wine & Spirit Merchants in Canberra, an independent retailer with shelves stacked with great wines from Australia and Europe which really expanded my wine consciousness.
After graduating as a winemaker from Charles Sturt University I became a ‘flying winemaker’ for Cellarworld International consulting to wineries in Romania, Argentina and France.
My greatest inspiration came working as a stagiaire at Domaine Vincent Girardin in the Côte de Beaune. Vincent was an extremely generous man and shared many bottles of Burgundy, his own and others.
I was close to leaving the industry at that time after completing a couple of hard vintages at a very commercial winery in Cowra, processing 3,000 tonnes of fruit alone with no trained cellar hands. But Vincent Girardin gave me back my enthusiasm. He made me realise that winemaking is about much more than logistics. It is about place.
I returned to Australia determined to make wines from small ‘domains’, focusing on the vineyard and letting the wines speak for themselves. I was chief winemaker role at Balgownie Estate, in Victoria for eight years, before joining Ian to establish Tellurian.
We currently grow and make wine from 23 hectares of our own vineyards; with Rhone varieties, shiraz, mouvèrdre, grenache, marsanne, roussanne and viognier as well as Italian’s fiano and nero d’avola which are doing extremely well in our warm Heathcote climate. While shiraz was, and will continue to be the mainstay of Heathcote, I see a bright future for the alternative varieties.
On a personal note I have a great love for Rhone varieties (deepened after a vintage at Cave Yves Cuilleron) and am one of the few people in Australia who enjoy making and drinking viognier.
Ancient Soils
Heathcote’s Cambrian soils formed over 500 million-years are ideal for viticulture. Deep, rich, decomposed greenstone rock with soil depths up to 2m allow vine roots to reach deep into the sub soil where moisture is more consistent, protecting the plants against extremes of drought and temperature. Our move to organic farming (certified since 2018) allows our wines to naturally reflect the influence of these incredible soils in every wine we make.
On the Vine
We have 32 ha of vines on our 80 ha property; primarily shiraz (21 ha) with the remainder planted with a colourful array of vines including grenache, mourvèdre, carignan, nero d’avola, marsanne, roussanne, viognier, grenache gris, riesling and fiano. Blocks are named for the year of planting from 02, 03, 06 and 11.
Continental Climate
Our climate is beautifully consistent, warm, sunny and dry throughout the growing season. Summer is generally warm and sunshine-filled with little or low cloud cover; perfect for developing intensity of character and flavour. Cool nights allow grapes to recover through the first part of the day with temperatures not rising until afternoon, retaining elegance and freshness.
Heathcote Region
Tellurian’s winery and vineyards are in the centre of the Heathcote region. This is a long and diverse winegrowing area – 80kms from north to south. South is slightly cooler than north, with wines varying from fragrant, lifted, medium density to more brooding, darker fruit intensity in the north.
Close Planting
Our most recent vineyard was planted high on the ridge above the winery in a natural south-facing amphitheatre. It is high density shiraz - 8,888 vines/Ha inspired by the steep, close planted sites of Saint Joseph and Hermitage in Northern Rhone. The combination of soil, aspect and elevation with the planting density should induce outstanding shiraz.
