St Hallett “Hands On” Part 3

(Nigel continues his story of Stuart Blackwell and St Hallet winery – he was absolutely smitten by his trip..to read Part 1 or Part 2). One of the things that stood out for me at St Hallett was that they source fruit from all of the 18 sub regions in the Barossa and produce individual wines from those sites before blending to create the desired final wine. This is not unlike the assemblage of the sparkling wine of Champagne . This gives the wine makers a lot of base wines to work with and allows them to create wines of consistent quality year in year out despite varying vintage conditions.

Many other wineries have only one or a few main vineyards which puts them at risk if a vintage provides poor conditions. We attempted to blend some of these base wine in the correct quantities to produce a wine similar to the St Hallett; Faith, Blackwell and Oldblock Shiraz. It was not easy!! John and Vanessa were great, answering any question that we forgot to ask Stuart and keeping the cogs turning on the busy itinerary.

Although I am concerned that they were testing our alcohol tolerance as they were always offering us more wine (and more food). Also an extra big thank you to Vanessa for showing me around the city and that amazing Fringe Festival. So glad I had an extra night in Adelaide! All in all an amazing 3 days in an amazing part of Australia with amazing people. Can I come back next year??