Winemaker Notes
Annie' s Lane is now one of the finest wineries in Australia's renowned Clare Valley and represents the finest vineyards in one of South Australia's great regions. The Annie's Lane wines rely on regional and varietal expression and have been awarded with over 350 trophies and medals at wine shows in Australia and across the globe since the first release in 1996. The most successful of all the wines has been the super-premium Copper Trail Shiraz.
The home of Annie's Lane is the heritage listed Quelltaler winery at the heart of Watervale, in the Clare Valley's south. Quelltaler is the region's oldest and most important winery, dating back to 1863. Fruit for Annie's Lane is sourced from magnificent old Watervale vines as well as from vineyards to the north in the Polish Hill River sub-district where the cooler ripening period and extraordinary slate riddled soils combine to create an unmistakable stamp of the Clare Valley.
The Clare Valley is actually a series of narrow north to south valleys, each with a different soil type and slightly different weather patterns along their stretch. In the southern heartland between Watervale and Auburn, there is mainly a crumbled, red clay loam soil called terra rossa and cool breezes come in from Gulf St. Vincent. A few miles north, in Polish Hill, is soft, red loam over clay; westerlies blowing in from the Spencer Gulf influece this area's climate.
The differences in soil, elevation, degree of slope and weather enable the region to produce some of Australia’s finest, aromatic, spicy and lime-pithy Rieslings, as well as excellent Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec with ripe plummy fruit, good acid and big structure.
Clare Valley is an isolated farming country with a continental climate known for its warm and sunny days, followed by cool nights—perfect for wine grapes’ development of sugar and phenolic ripeness in conjunction with notable acidity levels.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”