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 Plantagenet
Wines was the first winery in the Great Southern wine growing region
of Western Australia. From small beginnings Plantagenet is now one
of the most well respected Western Australian wineries consistently
producing quality wines for nearly 30 years. Fruit for many of the
wines is source from the oldest vineyards in the region.
The winery is located in the heart of Mt Barker
township which is 350kms south of the Western Australian capital
of Perth.
Some of our personal favourites are produced from
this winery:
These Hellfire Bay wines are made at Plantagenet
with fruit sourced from various vineyards in Western Australia.
Their aim has always to over-deliver on the quality of these wines
and we are happy that this has been achieved. They have wonderful
fruit intensity and as a result haven’t had to resort to residual
sugar, as too many wines at this price level do. The oak handling
is evident, but it adds richness and intensity rather than masking
inferior fruit.
The Chardonnay
is medium bodied with a great texture – citrus and grapefruit
flavours, while the Shiraz/Grenache
is spicy and powerful (a firm favourite with us). Both wines have
spent 10 months in French oak Barrels. Hellfire Bay was named by
early immigrants to Western Australia after they sailed through
St. Elmo’s fire.
Both wines are sealed under stelvin. In a world
of increasing stylistic conformity at this price level, we are proud
to be offering such distinctive Western Australian wines.
While the Plantagenet wines all come from grapes
grown in mature vineyards in Mt. Barker, the Omrah range is made
from fruit from younger vineyards, or from bought in fruit. These
wines – Sauvignon
Blanc, an Unoaked
Chardonnay, Merlot,
Cabernet
Sauvignon, Cabernet/Merlot,
Shiraz
and Pinot
Noir – have nicely focused fruit with lifted
perfumes and good balance. These wines also offer excellent value,
something that has quickly made them some of our best selling wines.
Despite all the talk of a glut of grapes in Australia, quality grapes
from cooler regions (such as those used in Omrah) are still in very
high demand. There is a shortage of both good Chardonnay and, the
variety that has proved so successful for Omrah, Sauvignon Blanc.
From the 2003 vintage, rather than blending the fruit, Richard Robson
felt that the quality of the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot was good
enough to produce single varietals.
Winemaker Richard Robson has quickly put his own
stamp on the wines in the past year, ensuring that Plantagenet continues
to produce some of Western Australia’s most exciting yet classically
elegant wines. The quality and style of the wines has always resided
in the fruit grown in their own vineyards, and Richard’s approach,
like Gavin Berry’s before him, is to capture and retain the
character of that fruit in the wines.
Both their Cabernet
and Shiraz
are consistently rated among the top 20 in Australia. Their Mt.
Barker Shiraz has won a string of awards in the past
few years and is now regarded as one of Australia’s top Shiraz,
especially by those who rate elegance over power. The Cabernet
Sauvignon has great poise and is all the more remarkable
for being contained within such a muscular frame. Yet this is no
‘alcoholic fruit juice’: it is a wine of the highest
quality that has the finesse of the world’s best Cabernets.
Gavin Berry works hardest on his Pinot
Noir, aiming for a wine that combines richness and
complexity. His Pinot, from vineyards in both Mt. Barker and Pemberton
(and for this reason given the ‘Great Southern’ appellation’),
has a burgundian complexity combined with supple tannins and is
surely one of Australia’s best examples of this variety. 2001
was such an exemplary vintage in Western Australia that a few barrels
of Merlot were deemed good enough to bottle. The Rock Horror
Vineyard Merlot is chunky, chocolatey.
Their whites are outstanding, with the fine, floral
and minerally Riesling, standing out as one of
the best in the country. This was recognised when the 2003 vintage
won a Gold Nedal at the International Wine Challenge. The wine is
made in an exemplary manner: no skin contact, no oxygen allowed
near the juice and no contact with the lees – everything to
capture the perfumes of the fruit in the wine. It retains its superb
balance, its lovely purity of fruit and its distinctive aromatic
character on the nose. This purity is preserved by the Stelvin closure.
The Mt. Barker Chardonnay has
a lovely balance of fruit and oak. This is one wine that has improved
rapidly since Richard took over in the winery, as he has injected
a degree of complexity into the wine it previously lacked.. The
sweet ‘Off the Rack’ Chenin Blanc is
only made in small quantities and offers great value and balance
for a sweet wine..
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