ATR Wines Hard Hill Road Nebbiolo 2012

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.

"Nebbiolo made to look easy, enough to cause the majority of Australian makers to grind their teeth furiously in frustration."  James Halliday

"Our Nebbiolo is focused and complex with a great depth and tight structure. Flavours of cherries and plums, cedar, spices, hints of mushrooms, with spicy, chocolate, leathery and earthy undertones. The concentrated flavours are matched by dense, but supple tannins that lead into a wonderfully long, vibrant finish."  ATR Wines

Expert reviews 

"Nebbiolo made to look easy, enough to cause the majority of Australian makers to grind their teeth furiously in frustration. It has unusually good colour, and all the perfumed rose petal, violet and dark cherry aromas you are meant to see on the bouquet, but which are so often missing in action; the palate follows suit and, best of all, the tannins are supple. Yes, it was a good vintage, but this is an utterly exceptional result. Tasted 18 months later (Sept '15), it has barely changed. What a wine. Drink by 2032."  James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion - 96 points and Special Value Wine  ★

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.