Alkina buys Trial Hill, old Grenache on an Eden Valley slope
Bulgheroni’s Alkina bought about eight hectares of ~80-year Grenache, Shiraz and Riesling at Trial Hill, rising to about 550 metres. Bush-vine Grenache terraces are planned. Price undisclosed. The same week Australian Vintage sold Nepenthe’s cellar door and vineyard for A$5 million.
Alkina has bought Trial Hill, an old amphitheatre in Eden Valley.
Alkina Wine Estate, owned by Alejandro Bulgheroni, purchased historic Trial Hill from Barossa grower Joel Mattschoss. The price was not disclosed. About eight hectares of Grenache, Shiraz and Riesling, vines estimated at 80 years, once part of Pewsey Vale — Joseph Gilbert planted the district’s first vines in 1847. The land rises to about 550 metres.
It joins Alkina’s 43 hectares at Greenock. Bulgheroni said great wines come from great sites, and that this Eden Valley block is where the estate will test Australian Grenache against them. Winemaker and managing director Amelia Nolan called the slope an amphitheatre and said old Grenache at this height is finite in Australia. The plan is terraced bush-vine Grenache on the upper slopes, which would place Trial Hill among the country’s highest Grenache vineyards. Mattschoss said he did not sell lightly; Greenock convinced him Alkina would look after what is there.
The same week, InDaily reported Australian Vintage sold the Nepenthe cellar door and vineyard for A$5 million. Alkina’s price stays private.
Mini-concept: eighty-year-old Grenache on a steep Eden Valley slope is a bet on a place, not on a label that can be reprinted.
Keep: a canned spritz never grew on an 80-year-old Grenache terrace. Trial Hill did — ask whether the next red is the old vines or terraces still to be planted.
Remember: Alkina (Bulgheroni) buys ~8 ha Trial Hill from Joel Mattschoss; ~80-year Grenache, Shiraz, Riesling; ~550 m; bush-vine Grenache terraces planned; plus 43 ha at Greenock; price undisclosed; Nepenthe sold by Australian Vintage for A$5m the same week.
Source: InDaily