Dawning Day Skin Shady 2021 New South Wales Southern Highlands

Sevenhill Inigo Late Harvest White 2020

Aromas of soapstone, almond kernel, nectarine and apricot. The palate is clean and soft with a mild sweetness. The acidity is well balanced, allowing the fruit flavours and texture to meld nicely with the sweetness.

The extremely low yields of 2020 forced a slight departure in grape variety for this year’s Late Harvest White. This year Gewurztraminer only makes up 13% instead of the usual 100. The balance is from Riesling 50% and Pedro Ximenez making up the balance. The Gewurz was fermented on skins to help extract a bit more aromatics and texture. The Riesling and Pedro were both harvested later than normal to achieve the right sugar / alcohol balance. The skin fermented Gewurz, an early ripening variety, was pressed and incorporated in with the Pedro/Riesling ferment. Careful monitoring of the fermentation progress and rapid chilling to halt the fermentation short of dryness was used to achieve this off dry style.

While the origins of Sevenhill Cellars date back to the mid-nineteenth century, its roots run much deeper and go all the way back to the 16th century when a young Spanish mercenary called Inigo, eventually swapped a life of violence for one dedicated to helping others and co-founded the religious order we know today as the Jesuits.

He mistakenly thought the Latin translation of his name was Ignatius and hundreds of years later, the more well-known St Ignatius has stuck fast.

Religious orders fell out of favour at various times with European rulers of the day during the middle ages and into the 19th century, as was the case in the mid-1800s and why two young Jesuit priests found themselves on a four-month voyage to Australia.

After landing in Adelaide in 1848, one of the priests, Father Kranewitter, struck out North with a group of over 100 German and Silesian migrants.

Amid the beautiful rolling hills of the Clare Valley is where they decided to settle and, after purchasing 100 acres of land in 1849, the young priest named the property Sevenhill in honour of the seven hills of Rome.

The creation of gardens and orchards were prioritised along with the building of basic accommodation and the first grapevines were planted in 1851.

Just 5 years later and the first wines of Sevenhill were produced and in 1858, went on to win first prize at the Auburn Agricultural Exhibition.

The first of many firsts, for Clare Valley’s first winery.