Respected and successful Australian winemaker Andrew Hardy has launched a new range of wines, Ox Hardy Wines, featuring two McLaren Vale Shiraz.
The super-premium 1891 Ancestor Vine Shiraz is a limited-edition wine of just 800 bottles, which draws on all of Hardy’s 36 years of winemaking experience. It is a 2008 vintage which has been cellared to perfection, so is actually ready for drinking straight away.
Hardy said: “Today, this vertical line-up of Shiraz is a stunning showcase of the quality of the Upper Tintara Vineyard and the precious nature of the 1891 Ancestor Vines. Due to the limited amount of 1891 Ancestor Vines remaining, the wine is made in extremely small quantities.
“The first 2008 vintage of Ox Hardy’s 1891 Ancestor Vine Shiraz has been released with around 800 perfectly cellared bottles that will be sold on a strict allocation basis.”
Also in the range is the affectionately named “Little Ox”, a 2016 Shiraz sourced from millenium Shiraz plantings on the Hardy family’s Upper Tintara Vineyard.
Purchased by Thomas Hardy in McLaren Vale in 1871, the picturesque 141ha property is also home to the original Upper Tintara Winery, which fell into disuse in 1923 following Thomas Hardy’s passing in 1912.
In 2018, Andrew ‘Ox’ Hardy made wine in the original slate open fermenters for the first time in 95 years, a sign of the unique and exceptional wines still to come.
The 1891 Ancestor Vine Shiraz is available in strictly limited quantities with a $225 RRP, while the Upper Tintara Vineyard Shiraz carries a $38 RRP.