Redesdale Estate Vineyard

When Peter and Suzanne Williams purchased the 60-acre Victorian property in 1988, the vineyard, originally planted in 1982, was in a state of neglect. Peter had been looking for an existing vineyard with river frontage and an old bluestone house. That Redesdale Estate was little more than an hour from Melbourne was an attraction for pair, who each led busy professional lives in the city. The vineyard was managed by contract and the grapes were sold to a commercial wine label for blending.

In 1993, the Williams' started to spend more time at the property. They extended the vineyard, planting specific varieties of Shiraz. A small olive grove was planted in 1994 and after losing most of the small trees in drought, they replanted and installed irrigation. In 1996, Peter and Suzanne began to develop garden spaces with dry stonewalls. They developed cottage gardens; planting roses, lavenders, wisteria, robinias and grevilleas. They used the slabs of sedimentary rock, cleared from the property, to build the dry stonewalls and build up the levels of the gardens overlooking the Campaspe river valley.

In 1999, the Williams' retained part of the grape crop and bottled this first vintage of Shiraz under the Redesdale Estate label. The next year a Cabernets wine was introduced from their Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot grapes. New French oak barriques were purchased to age the wine and a new winemaker -- Tobias Ansted of Balgownie Estate -- was engaged.

The nine acres of old vines yield a limited production of estate-grown wines which, since their first release in November 2002, have gained recognition for a quality and intensity of flavour attributed to the dry, cool climate and the sedimentary rock for which the Heathcote region is recognised. Of Redesdale, Paddy Kendlar wrote (it) 'is one of a growing number of small Heathcote wineries making the best of a soil and climate ideally suited to great red wines.'

Suzanne and Peter pressed their first commercial vintage of Redesdale Estate grown oil in 2003. With growing sales to gourmet restaurateurs of Melbourne and Sydney, its extra virgin neutrality, and herbaceous, peppery flavours saw it awarded the best in its "small commercial" class and No.4 across all classes, at the Royal Sydney Show in 2007.

Their gardens, now an annual part of Australia's Open Garden scheme, have a Mediterranean influence, with the stonewalls, olive vases, olive trees, lavenders and hedges. Rolling hills, eucalypt stands, rose gardens and fish filled streams are just part of the perfect escape recipe of Redesdale. In 2005, James Halliday featured Redesdale Estate in his 'Ten of the Best New Wineries'.