2023 Bannockburn Riesling

For some years now, Bannockburn’s Riesling has been firing on all cylinders. The 2023 includes material from a younger plot of Riesling (planted in 2015), but the lion’s share of the fruit remains drawn from Bannockburn’s ungrafted 1976 plantings in the Olive Tree Hill vineyard. From the third in a series of cold vintages, the fruit for the 2023 was picked in late March in excellent condition with slightly lower than average yields, whole-bunch-pressed and settled overnight before being racked to tank for a cold, natural ferment. As with the last couple of vintages, there were no additions other than a touch of sulphur.

Since its establishment by Stuart Reginald Hooper in 1974, Bannockburn Vineyards has been at the vanguard of the Australian fine wine story, producing vineyard designated wines of the highest quality from the start. Lying 25 kilometres northwest of Geelong along the Midland Highway, this heavyweight estate is located in the Moorabool Valley sub-region, just outside the township of Bannockburn. The estate comprises 26 vineyard blocks—including the iconic Serré vineyard (now the site of Australia's oldest close-planted Pinot Noir vines). Here, Bannockburn’s predominantly mature vines are rooted in one of Victoria’s most unique low-fertility terroirs; volcanic surface debris and ancient seabeds running to richer and darker soils, layered over predominantly limestone bedrock.

Following almost a decade under the steam train of energy and passion that was Michael Glover, Matt Holmes is the winemaker charged with writing the next chapter of this singular estate. Perhaps most significantly, feeling the region was too arid to get the best of the dry-grown, densely-planted vineyards, Bannockburn and Holmes have ‘turned on the tap’ (to encourage the kind of canopies Holmes deems crucial for his vines’ balance). Holmes has also introduced an earlier bottling regime and a more flexible use of whole bunches than his predecessor.

All of Bannockburn’s close-planted vineyards are now certified organic. Matt Holmes believes that as soon as he and his team had started the process of improving vine health a few years ago, the upshot in fruit quality was immediately noticeable in the wines. Under Holmes’ direction there’s also been a stylistic tilt in the winery, and with his Chardonnay, he’s steering a racier, more mouth-watering course—with less emphasis on lees and oak and more on vibrant acidity and freshness. Yet it is perhaps the style and quality of Bannockburn’s Pinot Noir in which the changes can be most keenly observed. An earlier-bottling regime and more reticent use of whole bunches are resulting in a purity of expression perhaps never seen under this label.

They say you’ve got to watch out for the quiet ones, and Matt Holmes is overseeing a discreet but careful evolution in both vineyard and winery. The Results? Bannockburn’s wine’s have never tasted finer.

In the vineyards, Holmes works with Lucas Grigsby, Bannockburn’s viticulturist for over 30 years. Grigsby takes great pride in tending to the vineyards with a strong belief in organic farming practices to maintain the health of the soils and Bannockburn’s vines. Between them, the pair’s viticultural principles are based on a healthy respect for the land and responsible farming, e.g., the use of organic composting and straw mulching to eliminate the need for herbicide sprays and the cultivation of inter-row cover crops to add soil nutrients. These principles flow through into the winery where Holmes employs minimal additions, wild yeast ferments and low intervention winemaking resulting in wines that are made with integrity and that are distinctively Bannockburn.

In addition to a core-range glittering with stars, Bannockburn crafts a number of celebrated single-vineyard wines. Bannockburn’s S.R.H. comes off the oldest Chardonnay vines in the Olive Tree Hill Vineyard and is named in recognition of Bannockburn’s founder, Stuart Reginald Hooper. These 12 rows of 39-year-old vines – roots well embedded in the ancient marine sediments – seem to suck the minerality fresh out of their subsoil and so deliver a spine-tingling backbone of fresh, saline minerality to support the intense flavour and texture of this special wine.

The iconic Serré vineyard is a 1.2-hectares of vines planted in 1984 and 1986, exclusively to the MV6 clone the clone that was propagated from the cuttings James Busby sourced from Clos Vougeot in the 19th century. The site has volcanic top-soils, with darker clay over weathered basalt and limestone clay. It’s an organically managed and low-cropping site that produces Bannockburn’s most individual Pinot. Serré is close-planted to 9000 vines per hectare and trellised low with narrow rows, replicating the tough vineyard conditions and low-yield-per-vine approach of Grand Cru Burgundy.

More recently, Michael Glover oversaw the inception, planting and nurturing of the two very special high-density single vineyards — De la Terre and De la Roche. De la Terre is a sub-one-hectare, organically managed vineyard planted to 10,000 Pinot Noir vines per hectare (on a north-south row orientation rather than the east-west of its immediate neighbour, Serré). 

2023 Vintage
The 2023 growing season started off cold and wet. For the first time since 2011 our dam was full, and in fact overflowed for most of October and November (rainfall for the calendar year of 2022 was 800mm). Budburst was slightly behind average timing, but crops were down significantly: the bunch counts were low in the first place, we had a mild frost in September and the wet weather finally caught up with us via downy mildew. The rain stopped at the end of December.

The overall heat accumulation was the same (1338 Growing Degree Days) as 2021, both seasons on the slightly cooler side of average but differing in that the heat for 2023 was more toward the second half of the season. Veraison occurred in February and then we picked Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Gamay, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling in March, and Shiraz and Cabernet/Merlot in the first week of April. The picking weather was pleasant and the fruit arrived at the winery in very good condition.

While quantity was down (especially in Pinot Noir) quality was good: fresh acidity, concentration, colour, tannin and steady fermentations have us looking forward to bottling, and seemingly warmer and drier seasons as El Niño returns.