d'ARENBERG WINERY, S Australia (Click for more detail)

d'Arenberg wines come from McLaren Vale in South Australia. This winery has a long family history going back to 1912. They take great pride in the fact that each and every one of their wines is handcrafted. Traditional techniques predominate, in harmony with nature. In 2003, d’Arenberg was awarded ‘Winery Of The Year’, by Australia's VOGUE Entertaining + Travel Magazine.

d'Arenberg crush most of their grapes through a Demoisy rubber toothed crusher, from Burgundy in France. Crushing is where the berries are broken to release their juice, and at the same time the stems and stalks are separated and removed. They barely crush their red grapes at all – they open up the rollers in the crusher really wide, so a lot of whole berries go through intact.

White grapes are pressed straight off the skins, so that skin contact is minimized and the chances of oxidation reduced.

All the wines are still basket pressed, even white grape varieties, making d'Arenberg one of the last remaining wineries in Australia to do so. This gentle method of squeezing juice from the grape skins protects the delicate white grapes and is gentle in the process of extracting the flavour, colour and tannins from the reds.

All the red wines are fermented in traditional wax lined concrete open fermenters, and some stainless steel open fermenters. Cellar staff foot tread the cap of fermenting skins in the open fermenters to aid in the extraction of flavour and colour.

The whole winemaking process at d’Arenberg is conducted along small-batch winemaking lines. This keeps separate the different parcels of fruit - from the time of harvesting, through fermentation, pressing and maturation in barrel or tank, to the blending stage.

The results are a range of complex, harmonious, integrated wines with seamless balance and wide spectrums of fruit and flavour. The reds are renowned for their ageing potential.

In November 2003, the prestigious accolade ‘Winery Of The Year’ was awarded to d’Arenberg, by Australia's VOGUE Entertaining + Travel Magazine. Approximately 1,000 wineries were considered in deciding the winery with the most consistent range of premium wines. This award is unique in that it considers a winery’s entire portfolio of wines and the quality of different releases over the year.

This award capped off a year of major successes for d’Arenberg. These included:
‘Winery Of The Year’ at the San Francisco International Wine Competition.
‘Great Value White Wine Of The Year’ at the UK International Wine Challenge.
‘Most Successful Winery’ at the Sydney International Wine Competition.
‘Best Blended Red’ at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show.
Finally, owner, Francis d’Arenberg Osborn AOM, universally known as d’Arry, was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queens Birthday Honours for his contribution to the wine industry and to the McLaren Vale region.