ATR Wines Hard Hill Road Durif 2016

Winemaker Adam Richardson selected the very special terroir of the Hard Hill Road Vineyard to call home and craft the A.T. Richardson brand (ATR Wines). He purchased the property in 2005 and spent the next 10 years improving the vineyards and planting more vines and new varieties - including Durif, Nebbiolo and Tannat.

Durif (also known as Petite Sirah) is a varietal that is often synonymous with the Rutherglen region in north-east Victoria which put the varietal on the map here in Australia. Durif has thick-skinned, black grapes that can produce majestic wines of depth and character. With his many years of experience with this variety in America, Adam is one of the few winemakers who dare to plant Durif in cooler climates.  

"The palate is beautifully plush and supple. It is moreish, opulent and generous."  Toni Paterson MW

"Grown on our Hard Hill Road vineyard in Great Western, these Durif grapes were hand-picked and fermented in small batches. We employed low-intervention winemaking techniques including some whole bunch fermentation, hand plunging and extended maceration. After about three weeks on skins, the wine is gently pressed before being aged in 500L American puncheons for 18 months.

The initial impression of this Durif is a tight and compact structure that holds a myriad of aromatic flavours close to its heart. However, with time in the glass, the wine readily unwinds to display a warm, generous and aromatic character. Primary flavours of cassis, blueberries, anise and the wonderfully floral elements of violets and rose petals float from the glass. The tannins are rich and evolve into the late palate providing a long, lively finish.

This Hard Hill Road wine is built to last. Although it already presents a seamless balance of fruit depth and tannin, it will continue to entwine all aspects of its personality and gain further complexity with decades of cellar time."  ATR Wines

Expert reviews

"Opaque purple-red. Amazing colour. Dense, ripe black fruit, a faint sauvage note and spice. Concentrated and controlled with a web of green apple acidity and fine tannin. Whatever oak it has seen, it has just sucked it up. Big, fresh, maybe brutal, but so well done. Amazing durif. Drink by 2035."  David Bicknell, Halliday Wine Companion - 96 points and Special Value Wine  ★

"Durif from the Grampians, not a grape/region combination you see every day. This spent three weeks on skins before being pressed to 500-litre American oak puncheons, where it spent 18 months. Dense in flavour terms but its slippery-smooth mouthfeel will win it keen admirers. This is a big but well-balanced red wine. Blackberry, graphite, leather, coffee-cream and choc-mint flavours swoop persuasively through the palate. Tannin is present and fine-grained but not overly obvious; the cascade of flavour and the suppleness of the texture are the main drivers here. Drink: 2020 - 2030+."  Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front - 92 points

"The colour is an incredibly dense, inky black/red. Bright red plum and blackberry fruit with accents of vanillin and coconut oak. The palate is beautifully plush and supple, and not-at-all warm, with ultra-soft tannins and integrated acidity. It is moreish, opulent and generous."  Toni Paterson MW, The Real Review - 91 points

Awards

Special Value Wine – Halliday Wine Companion  ★

About the winery

Winemaker Adam Richardson, born in Western Australia, has been making wine professionally since 1995. He held various senior international winemaking and management roles including chief winemaker for Treasury Wine Estates Americas and vice president of international winemaking for the major California-based The Wine Group. In these roles, Adam produced wines from almost every major wine appellation around the world and saw his name on the back label of about 70 million bottles of wine!

However Australia beckoned and after a 10-year search, he and his family selected the very special terroir of the Hard Hill Road Vineyard to call home and craft the A.T. Richardson brand (ATR Wines). They purchased the property in 2005 while they were still living in America, and planted their first blocks of Shiraz, Riesling and Durif in 2006. The first vintage of ATR wines was 2007, and they made just 200 dozen from a neighbour's vines. They spent the next 10 years improving the vineyards, planting more vines and new varieties (including Durif, Nebbiolo and Tannat), and in 2016 packed up the family and make the big move down under full time.

The close-planted vines at the Hard Hill Road Vineyard are nestled along a ridgeline that overlooks the Grampians ranges and are surrounded by a eucalypt forest. With its own special microclimate, the Hard Hill Road Vineyard's cool ripening conditions and naturally low-yielding vines produce wines with layers of intense flavours and a velvety structure. The challenging growing conditions, the unyielding soil, characterised by ironstone and quartz outcrops, and the low annual rainfall conspire to produce fruit of wonderful intensity and balance.

Their focus has been to create modern, cutting edge wines from the historic Grampians region, both from traditional varieties, as well as some lesser known varieties.  Adam's passion is to create wines that surprise the taster, but at the same time truly represent the vineyard in which they were grown. They are one of the few wine growers to plant Nebbiolo in the Grampians, and the only one to grow Tannat and Petite Sirah (also known as Durif). They use these varieties with a novel approach to create a series of unique and engaging red wine blends.