Hoddles Creek Estate vineyard was established in 1997 on the D’Anna property, which has been in the family since 1960. The vineyard lies in the Upper Yarra, which is higher, cooler and more marginal than the lower parts of the valley. It’s a set of conditions that suits winemaker Franco D’Anna’s obsession with freshness. The site sits astride Gembrook Road and is adjacent to Hoddles Creek. Its steeply sloping blocks prohibit mechanical harvesting, so all pruning and harvesting are done by hand. All the wines are made in their split-level, 300-tonne winery, which has an underground barrel store.
They maximise the soil health by using organic fertilisers and frequent soil aeration. All fruit for this wine was hand-picked in the cool of the morning. There were no enzyme or acid additions, there was no fining, and filtering was avoided wherever possible. Sulphur use was also kept to the bare minimum. All the fruit was de-stemmed with no crushing. Some batches were given a 4-5 day cold soak, alongside some pigéage and pump overs to aid extraction. The wine then matured in 16% new barrels, with the rest in older oak.