2021 Adelaide Hills Syrah ~ the vineyard, the artist & the story.

THE VINEYARD  ~ HILLENVALE

This was our first Syrah from “Hillenvale”, a special site, just east of Kangarilla, in the Adelaide Hills wine region. Our Hillenvale vineyard is 400 metres above sea level with breathtaking views out to Kuitpo Forest and the Gulf St Vincent beyond. Planted in 1999, the vines are a 1654 clone on a westerly aspect, underlain by red gravel loam, siltstone and quartzite, a very structural and deep site, from the Burra Group of Geology, circa 750 million years old. Hillenvale is a certified sustainable vineyard, and the fruit is regeneratively grown.

The fruit for this vintage was picked early for a cool, gentle whole-berry ferment. Once commenced, fermentation was for 16 days, while hand plunging the cap daily, then gently pressed directly to the barrel then finished in new and old 500L French oak puncheons and hogsheads for 8 months. Lifted, fresh and transparent, as a veil of blueberry, sapid red cherry and nori is given flutter by pepper-doused acidity and a clench of tension. The team has never felt so connected to a wine in our short history so far. It is not traditional, but holistic, a landscape of wine.

THE LABEL ARTIST ~ DAMIEN COULTHARD

We would like to thank Damien Coulthard for his time on the incredible piece of artwork displayed on this wine and hanging proudly in our cellar door. Damien Coulthard is an Adnyamathanha man from the Northern Flinders and Gammon Ranges in South Australia. Damien’s paintings share family narratives that have existed for millennia, embedded in the Yarta (diverse landscapes) as a record and reminder for all diversities and identities of the unique and continuous - spiritual and cultural connection Aboriginal people have to Country.

Damien is a co-founder of Warndu (Adnyamathanha word meaning ‘good’), an Aboriginal-owned business whose foundation is based on the principle of ‘looking to the past to protect our future.’ Warndu successfully works in partnership with Aboriginal communities, harvesters, and growers across Australia, to source Native Ingredients and encourage our country to use them in their daily lives. Warndu draws upon the dynamic harvesting and healing practices of the past to open minds and encourage an interconnection with all people, plants, and the earth. Their mission is to re-generate culture, tradition, community, health, seas, and soils.

THE LABEL STORY ~

The Flinders and Gammon Ranges are home to the Adnyamathanha Nation. Here custodians share Yura Muda, including many cultural expressions which relate to sacred, social, and environmental histories, including the belief that ancestral landscapes have been created by significant spirit creators, linking people to place.

The Hither & Yon, Syrah label embodies place with the use of a natural pigment harvested respectfully from an ochre mine site nestled in the Northern Flinders Ranges. Ochre from this site has been harvested and traded for many family generations, a site to teach kinship histories as well as being used for its medicinal properties to embody harvesting tools with powers.