Hoddles Creek Estate vineyard was established in 1997 on the D’Anna property, which has been in the family since 1960. The vineyard lies in the Upper Yarra, which is higher, cooler and more marginal than the lower parts of the valley. It’s a set of conditions that suits winemaker Franco D’Anna’s obsession with freshness down to the ground. The site sits astride Gembrook Road and adjacent to Hoddles Creek. Its steeply sloping blocks prohibit mechanical harvesting, so all pruning and harvesting are done by hand. All the wines are made in the family’s split-level, 300-tonne winery, which has an underground barrel store.
The health of the soil throughout the estate is maximised using organic fertilisers and frequent soil aeration. All fruit is hand-picked in the cool of the morning, there are no enzyme or acid additions, sulphur use is kept to the bare minimum, there is no fining, and filtering is avoided wherever possible.
The fruit was picked by hand in the morning and destemmed but not crushed to tank for fermentation. Franco took a varied approach to the batches, using a combination of cold soaks, post-ferment macerations, punchdowns and pumpovers to find the right balance between flavour and structure. The wine was then pressed to oak (30% new) for 11 months of maturation.