Hugh Hamilton Wines
Six generations, going on seven, in McLaren Vale. From Richard Hamilton, the adventurous smuggler who planted the first grapes in South Australia, to Mary, the first woman to run the Hamilton wine business, our story spans six generations. It’s a tale of a relentless spirit, pioneering winemaking, and a love for the land that’s in our very roots. With each generation, the Hamilton legacy has grown, weaving new chapters of flavor, innovation, and tradition.
The winery producers an exotic range of wines including not just the McLaren Vale classics of Shiraz, Grenache and Cabernet, but Fiano, Gewurztraminer and Saperavi too.
There are three estate vineyard blocks, the oldest dating to the late 1800s. The Cellar Vineyard is ‘Biscay Clay’, also referred to as ‘self-mulching black cracking clays’. It’s lousy soil to build houses on, but vines love it, particularly Shiraz. Such vines can produce fruit with great fragrance and power and a structure which guarantees ageing potential.
The Church Vineyard is planted to Shiraz, Saperavi and Sangiovese –a very important piece of real estate to Hugh Hamilton Wines. The soil is alluvial as the vineyard is an ancient creek bed. The rows run east/west, which provides maximum shade from the sun during heatwave conditions.
The Black Sheep Vineyard is toward Blewitt Springs, higher in elevation and further from the sea—and consequently cooler and later-ripening than the main region, and featuring large ancient sand hills which are interspersed with gullies which feature ironstone and clays. It is home to substantial plantings of Shiraz and Cabernet, each of which is divided into smaller sub-blocks according to the patchwork of soils on which they lie.
It’s an old adage that you don’t mess with what works, and what works in the vineyard is the timeless communication of the soil and its flora with the roots of the vine. It is clear that this balance does not need synthetic chemicals. The Hamiltons also actively participate in community groups such as Biodiversity McLaren Vale seeking to preserve the environment we share, well into the future.