Winemaking at Elderton
Elderton’s Winemaking Philosophy
Elderton’s winemaking philosophy has advanced a long way since our first vintage in 1982. We have gone from processing at a local contract wine processor to moving into our new state of the art winemaking facility in Nuriootpa in 2003. This has enabled us to focus more on producing ultra-premium wines and with a greater degree to attention to detail.
Our philosophy now continues to be to make some of Australia’s best wines sourcing only premium fruit from the Barossa and its surrounds. The wines that Elderton produce are true to their variety, balanced and classic in nature – they will stand the test of time if patiently cellared. Gone are the days where Elderton was known as producing wines that were heavily oaked. We source only the best French & American oak and all barrels are benchmarked annually by the winemaking team and the respective coopers to ensure that the oak that is purchased complements the wines’ fruit components.
Elderton is also extremely proud through its winemaking philosophy to offer wines that offer extreme value in all of their respective classes. Starting from the entry point E series wines right through to the ultra-premium Command Shiraz & Ashmead Cabernet Sauvignon wines — we are supremely confident that these wines over deliver not only in terms of quality, but the price that they are offered for as well.
Winery
The new Elderton winery is located on Railway Terrace in Nuriootpa and originally was a cannery for the Barossa’s vibrant local stone fruit industry in the 1930s. Pre WW2, the facility was then purchased and converted by Penfold’s to produce their fortified and upper range wines, before it was used in the late 1970s as a storage facility for the Penfold’s group. The facility was fairly run down at this point, but still offered so much promise in the right hands, as the approximately 80 year old buildings retained a lot of the history and heritage of the Barossa’s early formulative stages.
Since Elderton’s acquisition in 2003, new winery equipment was purchased including a stainless steel crusher, centrifuge, two air bag presses and temperature controlled stainless steel static fermenters — complementing the already existing 60 year concrete open fermenters that help shape the wines of distinction that we produce. The site also now has a modern lab with a full time lab manager that assists in assessing where the wines are at any stage of the wine making process. All information about the wines at any stage is added into our computer management system. The winery currently crushes around 700 tonnes per year for Elderton.
We are currently undertaking the slow and expensive task of restoring the winery buildings to their former glory. This project should be finished by 2011.
In 2006, Elderton gained organic certification as a wine processor from the Australian Certified Organic organisation (www.australianorganic.com.au). This does not mean that we are able to make organic wines under the Elderton label as we do not yet have organically certified vineyards, but it is the first step in the process which we are slowly working towards. We talk more about this changeover to biodynamic farming techniques in our ‘Viticulture’ section on this website.
Process
In tandem with our world renown reputation for red wines, increasingly over the last five years Elderton is gaining a reputation for white wines.
The whites are mostly all picked in the cool of the night to ensure that they come into the winery at the right temperature. They are crushed at this temperature, where some whole bunch pressing is also done and only the free run juice is used, which in most instances is fermented at cool fermentation (14–16°C) levels. Once fermented through the whites are prepared for bottling before heading out to market.
The reds that we produce are also mostly picked in the cool of the night, although much of our old vine stock is hand picked to ensure the longevity of the vines and integrity of the fruit. They are crushed and fermented in either the open concrete or static stainless steel fermenters, although increasingly we are also experimenting with limited amounts of barrel fermentation. These ferments are temperature controlled (normally 20–24˚C) before they are fermented to dryness. The wines are then pressed off in the air bag presses releasing most of the colour and complex tannin structures before being blended back into the total blend. The wines are then pumped over to our temperature controlled maturation cellars and carefully monitored before further blending and bottling allowing us to maintain the high quality wine styles for which we are renowned.
