Jonathan Tolley Wine Merchant, Australian Wine, New Zealand Wine Distributor

The idea of making wine on Kangaroo Island (K.I) occurred to Jacques Lurton in 1997, when visiting the island on his honeymoon with his wife Françoise. They fell in love with its natural beauty and recognised its considerable viticultural potential. A couple of years later Jacques came back to the island with his friend David Paxton, a reputed grape grower from McLaren Vale, in order to find a suitable place to grow vines.

Jacques was looking for a large property offering a combination of agricultural and vineyard potential. The property had to be on north facing slopes with heritage vegetation (Yaccas gum trees, scrub). Fortunately a 300 hectares property located in the chosen area with perfectly drained deep soils, came up for sale and with the help of the Paxton team an 11 hectares vineyard was planted with varieties that Jacques has had experience working with around the world. Sangiovese, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Shiraz, Grenache, Viognier, Semillon. Close spacing (5000 vines per hectares) with vertical canopy has been chosen for all the varieties except Grenache and Shiraz which are planted in bush vines at 1900 vines per hectares.

A modern 70 tonnes winery respecting the classic Australian style has been erected on site. The equipment was mainly brought from France with sorting tables to select the best of the grapes after destemming, concrete open fermenters with temperature control for fermentationand large wooden vats for ageing.

The close spacing of 5000 vines per hectare is a quality factor to control the yield per vine and achieve more flavour an phenolic concentration.

Jacques considers that to make a great wine it is necessary to blend either the same varieties from different regions or different varieties from the same region. He has chosen Kangaroo Island as the region with a multi varietal blend.

The other important factor is a climate that allows slow ripening. The Islander site on Kangaroo Island perfectly fits this criteria.