The spirit of unity in the Adelaide Hills has been demonstrated in full-effect as 21 winemakers have come together to create the Hills Appeal Wine, a 2019 Syrah Meunier, with all proceeds going back into the bushfire damaged region.
The fires burnt across 23,000 Hectares in the Adelaide Hills region, with hundreds of primary producers and businesses having been impacted with significant losses and damage to vineyards, horticulture, farms and stock.
Adelaide Hills Wine Region, Executive Officer, Kerry Treuel, told The Shout, that it was great to see people from across the region, as well as from outside, doing so much to help.
“From the very start, after the fire we were so fortunate in getting so many donations from the general public all around the world. But the winemakers in the region who weren’t affected were pretty quick to realise that it is going to take years from some of these guys to recover.
“It’s a least a three-year cycle for these vines to start being able to produce usable fruit again, so we knew from the start that we would need to do something more long term.”
Treuel added: “I think it was an amazing thing that the guys in the region, a lot whom were in the fire scar themselves were straight away thinking about longer term and how are we going to support the region moving forward.”
The Hills Appeal Wine is part of that longer term plan, at $28 per bottle, all funds raised from the 10,800 bottles will be distributed back into the local industry, to grape growers, winemakers and vineyard owners impacted by the December 2019 bushfires.
Treuel told The Shout: “We have had a fire appeal in place since the fires and we have raised more than $500,000 to date, and we took our time to get organised before we started handing that money out and the first of the money has just started to go out to the growers.
“There were more than 60 growers and producers affected, so we are giving the money to those guys over the coming months.
“They are using the money to do things like rebuilding the vineyard, buying winery equipment, whatever they need really.”
In terms of the wine itself, Treuel said: “It’s a really tasty wine that has got some really good quality fruit in there that we have been very fortunate to have donated to us, so I hope the industry get really get behind us and buy this wine which is available at a really good price.
“It’s definitely a taste of the Hills, it shows the modern Adelaide Hills with Syrah which is pretty synonymous with the Hills and there’s a bit of Meunier in there, which a lot of winemakers in the Hills use and which just takes the wine to another level.
“It’s a typical cool climate Syrah that the Hills is very proud to produce so it is definitely worth a try.”
To support and enjoy the taste of the Hills Region bottles are available to purchase from the Hills Wine Appeal website.