Barratt


— About —

THE FAMILY

Barratt Wines has always been a family affair employing Lindsay, his first wife Carolyn, their son Jon with his expertise in graphic design, web design and marketing and daughter Emma who assumed her mother’s role as office manager, bookkeeper and cellar door assistant through the period of Carolyn’s prolonged and ultimately fatal illness. In recent years, Lindsay has remarried and has been helped and supported by his new wife, Wendy.

 

THE VINEYARD

Purchased by Lindsay Barratt and wife Carolyn in 1990, the ‘Uley’ vineyard was planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in 1983 after the property was damaged by the devastating Ash Wednesday bushfires. Owned briefly by Ian Wilson (Krondorf Wines), the vineyard stands alongside Stephen George’s ‘Ashton Hills’ and Brian Croser’s ‘Petaluma’ as a pioneer of Adelaide Hills viticulture.

The Uley vineyard, situated at an altitude of 510 to 550 meters above sea level in the Northern end subregion of Piccadilly Valley in Adelaide Hills sits just a few hundred metres away from one of the region’s pioneering producers, Ashton Hills. Planted in 1983, the 25 acre ‘Uley’ property comprises 15 acres of vines (just over 6 hectares), nine acres of bushland and garden.

Llew describes the soil in the Uley vineyard as being particularly sandy vs the heavier clay soils of the valley floors in Piccadilly. The vineyard is certainly steep, with the top half of the vineyard with the higher percentage of sand, deeper loams at the bottom.

South facing exposition which we queried with Llew whether the East to West planted plots shown on the map had to be picked seperately due to difference ripening times. He said over the past 30 years they had trialled different pick timings and in fact there wasn’t a difference in quality at all so they continue to pick these rows at the same time.

The vineyard was renamed ‘Uley’ by Carolyn (Lindsay’s former partner) after a beloved village in the English Cotswolds from whence Carolyn’s ancestors had migrated to Australia several generations earlier.

 

Chardonnay (notes from Barratt)

Clone I10v1 – Great purity of fruit (grapefruit, white stone fruits). Rich and full, shows wonderful regional fruit characters. Soft acids. Large berry sizes and big canopy

 

Pinot Noir – Dijon Clones (notes from Barratt)

Domaine Ponsot is the source of these widely celebrated clones. Clone numbers beginning with “11” are older clones.

Clone 114 – Early ripening; profound colour with purple inflections; complex flavours; concentrated black and red fruits; seemingly intrinsic balance; fine yet abundant tannin.

Clone 115 – Also early ripening; mid-depth colour; favours complexity and savouriness; dark fruits – cherry, plum, blackberry; intense and rounded in structure; full-bodied.

Clone 777 – A “tour de force” of flavour and colour concentration; balance despite a yin-yang of round tannins and persistent flavour.