Heathcote II

Heathcote II is the product of two individuals, Peder Rosdal and Lionel Flutto and is all about producing premium red wines of the highest quality.

Heathcote II is hands on grape growing and winemaking. With only seasonal staff at harvest, Peder and Lionel run the whole process from hand- pruning the vines to pressing the wine. They purchased the property in January 2004 and the 2017 vintage will be their 14th.
The wines are made purely from grapes grown by us on our property in Toolleen, 28 kms North of Heathcote. The yield is naturally very low, rarely exceeding 1.5 tons to the acre, which gives about 22 - 25 hl/hectare. The altitude of the property lies from 220 to 250 meters above sea level and it spans over 80 acres of undulating red Cambrian soil. However only 13 acres are planted into vines. Most of that being Shiraz, with smaller plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Tempranillo and Grenache. The oldest vines have an average age of 22 years.

Peder is the French trained winemaker and responsible for making the wine. He uses traditional yet modern winemaking techniques taken from his experiences in Europe and the US. The fermentation goes on for 10 to 14 days in small open vats. In order to maximize deep colour and flavour extraction, the fermenting juice is hand-plunged twice a day. This very effective technique was initially developed in Burgundy many years ago and is still considered the most gentle way to extract the essence of the grapes. All the wines are dry and they are aged in the finest French oak barriques for eighteen to twenty four months.

Lionel is more involved in the viticulture side where the focus is on achieving balanced vines able to cope with summer stress. With no irrigation, each vine is individually hand pruned to an optimum cropping level where stress is managed for flavour balance and concentration. The dry conditions prevailing most of the year reduce the disease pressure dramatically making it easy to manage the vineyard with minimal chemical sprays.