Terre à Terre

Terre à Terre makes still wines from our single Crayères vineyard spanning across eight hectares of vineyard in the very unique, cool climate wine region of Wrattonbully. We have been refining our winemaking and blending approach since 2008 of the Crayères Vineyard fruit, culminating with the existing range of white and red wines.

The Crayères vineyard is named for its positioning across ancient limestone caves, with geology dating back 35-million-years old, covered in rich terra rossa soil. The Wrattonbully GI is located just 20km north of Coonawarra and 80km south of Padthaway.

Since 2011, we have been experimenting with winemaking styles best suited to the Crayères Vineyard to ensure we are best representing our high quality fruit and the distinctive terroir. With our whites, we make barrel aged Sauvignon Blanc giving us a textural and layered style, reminiscent of some of the best white Bordeaux but with our own Four our red wines, we grow and make ripe harvested Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, utilising Shiraz as a blending component with each variety giving balance and completeness- particularly inspired by the long tradition of claret blends. We use a restraint level of oak, to allow terroir and varietal character to shine through.

Our Crayères 8-hectare vineyard block was purchased in 2004. Our first Terre à Terre wine was a Sauvignon Blanc from the Crayères Vineyard made in 2008. In 2009, we made our first Cabernet Sauvignon from the Crayères Vineyard, and in 2014 we made our first Cabernet Franc and Shiraz.

This phenomenal vineyard sits on the crest of a north-south 35-million-year-old Oligocene limestone ridge covered by terra rossa soil. On its eastern flank, a layer of Bridgewater eolian sands covers the ancient terra rossa soil. While ripping the vineyard block before planting, the entrance to a limestone cave network was discovered. Hence we have given the vineyard the name of Crayères (Crayères, from craie – limestone in French – is the local name of the underground network of caves that are found in the Champagne wine region). The Crayères cave contains the undisturbed fossilised remains of ancient megafauna that are unique in the world, and which will be the subject of extensive research in the near future.

We make two wines from our Crayères Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc fruit. Firstly, the very best parcels of fruit goes into our Crayères Vineyard white which is whole bunch pressed and fermented in seasoned 600L oak demi-muids. Our second Sauvignon Blanc, Down to Earth, is crushed and destemmed, then fermented partially in old oak and partly in stainless steel to enhance its youthful vibrancy. 

For both wines, sulphur is added at the end of fermentation to inhibit malolactic fermentation, and the wine rests on lees for 6- 9 months before bottling with a light filtration.

For our red grape production, the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Shiraz are all harvested at full ripeness and processed separately. They are crushed and destemmed and the must is fermented either in larger open top fermenters with boards to keep the cap submerged (called potters), or in smaller 1-tonne fermenters, with daily plunging to keep the cap submerged. We add some whole bunches only in select years to the Cabernet Franc fermenters. After the end of fermentation, the wine is pressed off skins and into tank, to go through malolactic fermentation. At the end of the malolactic fermentation, the wine is racked into oak barriques. After 6-12 months ageing in barriques, the wines are racked to old large oak Foudres (4,000L) where they age for a further 6-12 months. After a light egg white filtration, the wines are racked off oak, ready for blending and bottling.