Description
Red 5 Star Rated Winery – By James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion 2020
At Bannockburn terroir is taken very seriously with a site specific and Burgundian/Rhône like approach to vineyard management but without discounting quality for the sake of personality. Winemaker Matt Holmes has taken on the principles of making wines with great diligence and passion; orchestrating organic practice, a belief in dry grown viticulture, vine age and close planting. In the winery they favour wild ferment, use of whole bunches, extended maceration times, extended lees contact and fastidious barrel selection processes to make wines that are exciting, unique and clearly identifiable as ‘Bannockburn’.
Bannockburn Vineyards established by Stuart Hooper in 1974, is situated outside the township of Bannockburn, Victoria. Over the past 4 decades Bannockburn has achieved a reputation for handcrafting wines that are individual, complex and elegant. Wines which genuinely reflect the flavours of highly regarded vineyards; wines which are produced with a purist, uncompromising approach to winemaking.
All Bannockburn wines are made from fruit grown on our long-established estate in the Geelong wine region. The meticulously tended vineyards and the “hands-off” approach by winemaker Matt Holmes result in wines that are exciting, complex and uniquely Bannockburn.
Matt Holmes commenced making the wines at Bannockburn Vineyards in 2015. He sees his role as a servant to the vineyard, growing season and fruit to produce wines representative of our style and site. Above all, gentle inputs and minimal additions are his goal. In his words, “Well-nourished vines grown in a suitable spot, picked on the right day, transcribed as wine.”
Previously, Matt had been making wine in the Okanagan wine region of British Columbia, Canada. During these 10 years he also gained a broad range of experience working additional vintages in the U.S., France, Italy, New Zealand as well as Australia.
