Nick Holmes started his winemaking career in 1967 as a trainee cellar hand, even then his ambition was to establish his own label, plant vineyards and build a winery. In 1983 Nick started planting vineyards and in 1994 built the winery. Today Shottesbrooke is proudly an estate grown, family owned, boutique winery. The first Shottesbrooke wine was a red blend from the 1984 vintage which incidentally won the Montgomery Trophy at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show.

Shottesbrooke is located in the eastern pocket of the beautiful and tranquil McLaren Vale valley, just 45 minutes from Adelaide. The Shottesbrooke vineyards are situated on the upper slopes of the McLaren Vale region. The sandy loam soils of moderate fertility and careful management of yield produce consistently high quality fruit with excellent balance. The generous climate produces big, bold Shiraz with an elegance which is the signature of the Shottesbrooke style. Production in total over all the wines by Shottesbrooke is under 10,000 cases annually. Magnificent views over the gum-studded vineyards, up to the rolling Willunga Hill can be viewed from the award winning cellar door opened in April 1995.

The rainfall is about 21 inches per year with this falling mainly in the winter months. The estate grown grapes were harvested at approximately 14.6 Baume when fruit flavors were fully developed. After de-stemming and crushing the wine was fermented in static fermenters with pump over cap management. The temperature was maintained between 20 - 25C.  After sufficient color and tannin was extracted from fermentation on skins, a portion of the wine was transferred to American oak to complete fermentation. The wine was then racked and transferred to American oak hogsheads for a further twelve months prior to bottling.

The color is a dense deep red showing the purple hues of vintage and black cherries with some pepper and spice. The fruit aromas are complemented by toasty oak. Bold rich and full flavoured, the palate is layered with ripe fruit and mocha with toasty overtones from the American oak maturation. The wine has a velvety mouth feel with great length. 2006 was an excellent vintage with stable conditions at harvest. This wine is in the proud tradition of big generous McLaren Vale fruit with Shottesbrooke style and elegance. This wine is drinking beautifully now and will cellar for another 5 to 7 years. Serve with lamb chops or veal parmigiana.

Alcohol: 14.5%

pH: 3.40

TA: 7.3

R/Sugar: 2.3g/l.

91 (2005 vintages) Ruby-red. Seductively aromatic redcurrant, raspberry and blueberry aromas accented by graphite, exotic vanilla and clove. The oak is suavely woven into the fresh dark berry flavors and helps to sweeten rather than overwhelm the palate. Juicy dark berry and cherry fruit flavors carry through the long, energetic finish. Impressively pure, expressive and utterly seductive. Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar - July 2007