Vineyards of New England
Australia
“There is no other region which has come on stream with so much to offer as New England ...
It is a beautiful region; it is no coincidence that the name New England was chosen when it was first settled. Variations in altitude, aspect, degree of slope and soil type give vignerons a wide choice of variety and wine style.”
James Halliday, Chair of Judges, New England Wine Show 2007
Local History:
The New England area, although recognised as a new wine producing region, is in fact a re-emerging wine region with an interesting history.
Grape growing in the region dates back as far as the first settlers. Squatters and settlers planted vineyards and made their own wine due to the difficulty in transporting alcohol from other major centres. The most famous of these was Mr. George Wyndham, founder of award winning Wyndham Estate Winery. George established a 100,000 acre property, “Bukkulla” near Inverell in the 1850s. By 1870 George had 10ha of vines bearing fruit which contributed to the total 11,000 gallons of Wyndham Estate wines being produced each year.
The New England area is unlike any other grape growing region in Australia. This is due to the region’s high altitude (with a good number of vineyards above 1,000m), cool climate and soils and topography highly suited to premium wine-grape production.
By about 1905, after the arrival of the railway, wine production from the Inverell area of New England was 227,000 litres from seven or eight larger vineyards and a number of smaller vineyards totalling about 45ha.
Between 1870 and 1920 wines from the area won many awards at wine shows in Sydney, Amsterdam, London, San Francisco, Chicago and France. A prominent English wine judge of the time wrote of the Bukkulla wines: “(They) have a character and quality above the average of most wine producing countries. The lowest quality is better than a large proportion of the ordinary wines of Europe; while the best would not suffer in comparison to the finest known growths.”
Topper’s Mountain Wines
Location:
Just north of Tingha (west of Guyra) in northern NSW. We are on the western edge of the New England Tablelands at an altitude of 880m to 900m. The vineyard is situated on beautiful deep, red volcanic soils high above the valley of the MacIntyre River.
Name:
It is thought that the name: “Topper’s Mountain” came from brothers, E. & W. Topper who were employees of George Wyndham in the 1850s. At this time George owned “New Valley Station” which included the presend-day “Topper’s Mountain”.
“Topper’s Mountain” is owned by three families: those of Will, Richard and Mark Kirkby.
The Vineyard:
A total of 10ha, of which 1.1ha was planted in spring 2000 and the balance planted in spring 2002.
We have four ‘commercial’ areas of about 2ha of Tempranillo, Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay; larger trial areas of about 0.3ha of Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot, and single row trials of 10 other varieties including Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Pinotage, Tannat, Nebbiolo, Viognier, Touriga Nacionale and Barbera.
To contact Topper’s Mountain Wines:
Phone: 02 6723 3506
Email: mark@toppers.com.au
www.toppers.com.au
NSW Liquor Licence #24013615 |
