The top soils of our 'Polish Hill River Estate' are moderately fertile, red brown clay loams. The subsoil of the Polish Hill River sub region is predominately slate and the only sub region in the Clare Valley with a uniform slate subsoil. These ancient soils are over 650 million years old and are low to moderate in nutrients and rich in minerals, which contributes to the minerality of our wines. 

This soil profile also provides good drainage during our cool, wet winters and provides low to moderate nutrient level in the soils. This has the effect of keeping vine vigour and resultant yields moderately low, which in turn increases the concentration of flavour and aroma and tannin compounds within the juice.

The Polish Hill River sub region has a very unique geographic feature, being the centre point or 'syncline' of an ancient geological uplift and is now surrounded by hills on three sides. This landscape forms a 'bowl' which traps the cold night time air in the resultant valley, keeping our daytime temperatures slightly lower. This in turn helps create structure, elegance and varietal definition for which our wines are renowned.

Healthy vine canopies help make great wines! Our preference for vine plantings is an East West orientation, which enables the fruit to be shaded by the canopy in the hottest parts of the day, avoiding sunburnt fruit and phenolic flavours. 

Healthy vine canopies help make great wines! Our preference for vine plantings is an East West orientation, which enables the fruit to be shaded by the canopy in the hottest parts of the day, avoiding sunburnt fruit and phenolic flavours. 

With our winery situated on site, and with our own modern equipment, we harvest our fruit in the cool of night and deliver it to the winery to be crushed, chilled and pressed within 60 minutes of picking. This is of huge benefit in keeping the fruit flavours bright and fresh in our wines, as it minimises oxidation and skin contact time with the juice.

We have been using straw mulch for many years as we recognise the importance this plays in the health of our vines and ultimately in the quality of our wines. Not only does it have the sustainability benefits of reducing herbicide use and reducing water evaporation in extreme heatwave conditions, it also plays a critical role in reducing the soil temperatures under the vine to ensure healthy root growth. It also adds valuable organic matter to the soils as it naturally decomposes and breaks down.

It also reduces the temperature significantly in the fruit zone, because it stops the reflective heat off the ground, and again helps protect those pristine and pure fruit characters. The entire vineyard has a new application of straw mulch every three to five
years. 

Whilst we are best known for Riesling, we have been growing other varieties including Shiraz and Cabernet for 35 years. We now have 20 different varieties planted on our
estate, including Chardonnay, Semillon, Grenache, Mourvedre, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Sangiovese. Over recent years we have been developing alternative varieties like Savagnin, Albarino, Nero d’Avola, Fiano, Montepulciano and Tempranillo.

We also buy a small amount of fruit from a few of carefully selected Clare Valley growers, some of whom have been supplying us grapes for more than 20 years. This strategy
provides our winemakers with a greater diversity of grape material to work with, further enhancing the quality and complexity of our wines.