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CASA FRESCHI ADELAIDE HILLS VINEYARD 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 (550-580m), 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. Between 2004 and 2007 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 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. CASA FRESCHI ALTEZZA CHARDONNAY VINEYARD, ADELAIDE HILLS (left), AND CLOSE UP OF ITS SOILS (right)
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