Cellar Profile
In 1980, the Leask family moved from the Hunter Valley to McLaren Vale, in Southeast Australia. They have since purchased several vineyards through the hilly, iconic region, allowing brothers Malcolm and Richard to finally open their own winery. The vineyards sit upon mineral-rich reddish-brown loam and clay soils, with quartzite and sand. These iconic reddish soils are high in iron content, imparting a savoury, umami note to a lot of the wines. While the days get quite warm during the growing season, there is a strong ocean breeze from the nearby Gulf of Saint Vincent, which also drops the temperature markedly during the evening, allowing the grapes to cool and maintaining freshness in the wines. In the vineyard, H&Y practices Regenerative Agriculture, working the vineyards in such a way as to help reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity. With a preference for Mediterranean and Iberian Peninsula varieties, they offer an eclectic collection of wines including Tempranillo, Nero d’Avola, Touriga Nacional, Aglianico, Malbec and Carignan. Buyers+Cellars is pleased to offer the acclaimed, limited quantity Tempranillo and Malbec for the first time in Ontario.
Region
It was really a small miracle and with good luck, that a healthyharvest started in 2023. A very wet and cold winter andspring, indeed the wettest November and lowest solarradiation days of a growing season on our record, made forextremely challenging vineyard management and diseasepressure conditions. The hard work and experience of ourLeask Agri team, along with a lot of good humour, produceda balanced environment without vine stress, and an idealamount of bunches. Regenerative agriculture was the key—grass cover, organic material, and soil moisture. A littledaunting was the lateness of the season, however a lovelyautumn, still warm enough for ripening but cool too, so thefruit was fresh and balanced, at lower Baume with naturalacidity. The vineyards looked wonderful, vibrant canopieswith good-sized berries, crop was a wee bit light, addingto our confidence of a top-quality vintage. After sixty-two days of the 2023 harvest “loop” what wasvery clear was that we had a brilliant group of people to helpus, producing unreal quality fruit and getting it all off spot ontime, clean and fresh. Gentle handling and the wines arehappy and shining. Healthy environment, passionate people,growing better wines with a light footprint again in 2023,we look forward to sharing with you.
Vineyard
Hunt and Sand Road, McLaren Vale. Grenache (70%) wasestablished in 1960, own rootstock, heritage clone. Hand spurpruned, two-wire vertical, single cordon. Mataro (30%)established in 2008, G7V1 clone. Geology is Christies BeachFormation, alluvial fan of sand, clay and gravel. The soil here isreddish brown loam with some iron sandstone deposits fromthe nearby slopes and creek. Regeneratively farmed, andCertified Sustainable Winegrowing Australia vineyard.
Winemaking
The fruit was hand-picked and delivered to the winery, onMarch 25th for Grenache (7.5 tonnes), and April 12th forMataro (3.6 tonnes) Gently de-stemmed and cold crushedto stainless open-top fermenters, the varieties in separatebatches. We aimed to retain at least 80% of whole berries,keeping them cool, and then gently warmed to a wild yeastferment over 2 days. Primary fermentation took place for 10to 14 days (longer for Mataro). Once the wines were dry, theywere pressed to tank where the free run juice and all pressingswere combined. The Mataro was then transferred to6-7-year-old French Oak 330L hogsheads, the Grenache to4-5-year-old French oak 500L puncheons. After 8 monthsin Oak, we racked and transferred both wines and co-blendedin stainless, leaving for a period of 2 months to mesh. Thewine was bottled at night following a micro screen filtration,on April 30th, 2024. This wine is sealed under Stelvinscrewcap. Certified Carbon Neutral, Certified SustainableWinegrowing Australia, vegan-friendly wine
Tasting Notes
C O LO U R: Brilliant purple, magenta hue.A R O M A : Raspberry, red cherry, Amaro,pink peppercorns, red roses.PA L AT E: Berry juicy fruits, lively mouthfeel, succulent.Orange zest, dark chocolate bullets, then ironstoneand baked earth, briny and crunchy. Genuine powerand length with good bones for ageing, al-dente tannins,complex but vibrant.