The S.H.R. (named after the founder Stuart Reginald Hooper) Chardonnay comes from the Olive Tree Hill Vineyard, off 11 rows of the oldest vines on the property at around 35 years of age. This plot offers Bannockburn's "best expression of soil," according to winemaker Michael Glover. The 2008 S.R.H. Chardonnay gives quite a toasty, nutty style with notes of apple tart, earth / chalk, some musk and ripe apricots. Concentrated, medium bodied and rich in the mouth rich, it is nicely balanced by a good backbone of high acidity, finishing long with a nutty / oatmeal character coming through. Delicious now, it should evolve gracefully to 2017+. Though bottled, this wine is unlikely to be released until 2012. "If you have to do something to stay in the game then you have to do it," said Michael Glover, getting down from his soapbox for about the tenth time during my visit. He was referring on this occasion to my questioning his use of a cross-flow filter to control microbial spoilage. But in spite of his best efforts to the contrary, I actually like the guy and the strong views that he passionately extols. A Kiwi winemaker coming into the back-of-beyond of Geelong via Tasmania, he had big shoes to fill when he stepped into Gary Farr's position six vintages ago. And there's no love lost between the ensuing neighboring estates. (By Farr is literally spitting distance from Bannockburn.) I have admired Bannockburn's wines from afar for many years, so it was about time that I visited in May 2011. Not to mention the fact that Glover refused to send me any samples until he met me in person. To see the windswept hills even on a cold, miserable, rainy autumn day was well worth the trip. The vineyard area here used to be under the sea, possessing underlying limestone / sea sediment with a top layer of free draining basalt. The first vineyards were planted in 1974 with the Pinot Noir planted in 1976 and subsequent plantings in the 1980s. The winery, a solid, imposing brick-house, was constructed in 1981. Apart from the soil, one of the unique attributes of this estate is the very closely planted vineyards: 9-10,000 vines per hectare, which of course is along the standard of the top vineyards of Burgundy. Furthermore, the relatively small, low trained vines are very low-cropping - some as low as 250-500 grams of fruit per vine. "Every vintage here has been quite different and when you're going down this dry-grown path this seems to exacerbate the vintages," continued Glover as we tasted. "Chardonnay seems to reflect the earth more for us, Pinot reacts to the climate. Our winemaking is reactive. You're constantly reacting to what the season is." Another thing that impressed me about Glover's methods is this refusal to make wines by formula - each wine is handled different every vintage. The Pinot Noirs normally include a lot of whole bunches, which Glover claims, "are mainly for perfume." They wear this controversial technique well. Now if I could I could only convince him to scrap that rather expensive cross-flow filter?Bannockburn does not currently have a USA importer but exports to Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Canada.
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