All is built on sand.

“The Barossa Valley is like a patchwork quilt. Made of clusters of diverse landscapes marked by subtle variances in topography, geology, and climate. Our vineyard is in an area known as Moppa Dunes located on the north-western flank of the Valley between the Moppa and Ebenezer sub regions. It’s special country here, earning its distinctive name from a freak geological formation of sand dunes created around 18,000 years ago.

The vineyards surrounding us are often collectively referred to as ‘Grange country’, being the source of many wines that make Australia’s most famous Shiraz wine. There’s no doubt as to what grows best here, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that our vineyard is planted entirely to Shiraz. The oldest vines date to 1964, with further plantings in 1990, 1993, 2017 and 2022 taking the total area under vine to 9 hectares.

The sandy soils are riddled with ancient stone and sub surface clays, the time-honoured markers of great wine country in the Barossa Valley. These provide ideal conditions for growing low yields of small, intensely flavoured Shiraz berries. At 320 meters above sea level, the elevated location allows late afternoon breezes rising from the Valley floor to cool the vine canopy. This ensures the fruits ripen more slowly promoting floral aromatics, a complex flavour profile and great structure in the wines. This magical combination delivers the all-important ‘delicious/ yummy’ factor in the young wines and the foundations for patient cellaring.

Jo Irvine is a second-generation Barossa winemaker with 20 odd vintages under her belt. Her approach is very much deferential to the innate characteristics of the Pine Drive vineyard. Akin to playing the role of director standing in the wings, leaving the spotlights and applause for the fruit. Mission critical when we’re pinning the identity of that wine to a single vineyard. Jo has also been instrumental connecting us to other growers in the region. This mini network of like-minded souls affords opportunities to expand our understanding of Barossa wine and apply learnings in our vineyard. In turn we purchase small parcels of Grenache and Mataro to round out our limited offering of Barossa Valley single vineyard wines.