St Hugo has added a Single Vineyard Collection to its fine wine range, which aims to showcase nuances of the St Hugo house style through single vineyard fruit expression and terroir.
The release in the collection focuses on the Barossa and Coonawarra regions, through the 2018 Barossa Valley ‘FABAL’ Shiraz, 2016 Barossa Valley ‘Koch’ Shiraz and the 2018 Coonawarra ‘Flint’ Cabernet Sauvignon.
When it came to crafting these new release wines, St Hugo Chief Winemaker, Peter Munro said he was guided by the terroir of the vineyards and their unique characteristics and wanted to ensure the three vineyard sites shine through in the glass.
“The dirt always wins. As a winemaker you can do all you like to craft and shape the wines, but the dirt always comes out in the final expression of the wine.
“That’s the pleasing thing about the St Hugo Single Vineyard Collection, they’re a true representation of where the grapes are grown; be it the soil, the aspect or the phenomenal age of the vines, each vineyard tells its own story and imparts this history and legacy into the grapes, and that’s something we’re so excited to share with the world,” said Munro.
St Hugo said of the wines: “The 2018 Barossa Valley ‘FABAL’ Shiraz has been sourced from a single block on the FABAL vineyard in the northwest corner of the Barossa Valley in Greenock where the vines are grown on a very shallow red/brown topsoil layer over an alkaline subsoil. The vineyard sits at an elevation of approximately 325m and has a gentle northwest aspect that is perfectly suited to the east west row orientation, resulting in some of the first harvested Shiraz each year in the Valley for St Hugo. All of this combines to create wines of great structure, power and minerality.
“In comparison, the 2016 Barossa Valley ‘Koch’ Shiraz displays characteristics typical of the Rowland Flat sub-region of the Barossa Valley. Bright and vibrant with dark red fruits and a plush opulence, this is a wine approachable in its youth with depth of flavour to age. Sourced from a single vineyard planted in 1921 and grown on the banks of Jacob’s Creek, on a mix of deep alluvial soil and rocky red brown soils, this terroir imparts a generous nature to this wine counterbalanced with extraordinarily fine chalky tannins; seductively pretty and powerful.
“The 2018 Coonawarra ‘Flint’ Cabernet Sauvignon is Coonawarra Cabernet at its finest, demonstrating the regional flavours of fruit grown on the famed terra rossa soil of the region. Structural with regional blackcurrant fruit and fine tannins to ensure a long life ahead of it. Fruit for this wine is from two adjacent blocks on the Flint Vineyard in the northwest of the Coonawarra wine region. The vines were planted in 1989 resulting in a wine of great power and opulence.”
The collection also includes QR code technology on the back label which link to video content with detailed information from Munro on the wine and the vineyards enabling consumers to build on their fine wine knowledge.
The St Hugo Single Vineyard Collection will be available to purchase from the St Hugo Cellar Door, select national fine wine retailers.