Plantagenet (n)
1. English royal house which reigned from 1154 to 1399 (Henry 2nd to Richard 2nd), the name coming from the nickname of Henry’s father, Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, who habitually wore a sprig of broom – L. planta genista
2. Rural shire, or region, surrounding the town of Mount Barker, just north of the port of Albany, in south west Western Australia.
Like many local landmarks, it was named by early English settlers who favoured royalist titles.

Modest Beginnings

Plantagenet takes its name not only from its home, but also from its heritage. In a stroke of serendipity, English migrant Tony Smith, himself a descendant of the Plantagenet line, ended up settling down and planting his first vines in Western Australia’s Plantagenet Shire.

An Astute Vision

It was in 1968 that young English migrant farmer Tony Smith first planted trial vineyards of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon on his Bouverie property just west of Mount Barker. Three years later, more vines, including Riesling, went in on a neighbouring farm, Wyjup.

Even the first wines from these young vines were tight, lean and showed the elegant spice and fruit characters for which this area was to become known.

In 1975, an apple packing shed in Mount Barker was bought and converted into the region’s first winery, and Plantagenet Wines was on its way to becoming one of Western Australia’s best known and most respected wine producers.

Vineyard expansion continued in the late 1980s, with the establishment of the aptly-named Rocky Horror vineyard south of Mount Barker – so-called because of the proliferation of car-sized boulders throughout – and, in 1999, the Rosetta vineyard some 12km (seven miles) west of the township.

The business has since continued to strengthen and consolidate to ensure that its reputation for producing elegant, well-structured wines with balance and complexity spreads beyond Australia to an international audience.

Pristine Environment

Plantagenet’s 130 hectares of vineyard, which are planted to the south and west of Mount Barker, range from sandy loam to deep gravel and clay, and all enjoy favourable aspects and long ripening periods.

The climate is cool and strongly influenced by the proximity of the Southern Ocean; rainfall is plentiful and even the hottest Australian summer days are tempered by cooling breezes.

Plantagenet Wines was the first winery in Western Australia’s Great Southern region and has been producing distinctive, quality wines since 1975 in the heart Mount Barker, a town 350 km (210 miles) south of the city of Perth.

Ancient Soils

Plantagenet’s vineyards have been carved out of the region’s distinctive Marri, or Red Gum, soils – gravelly loams that have good drainage over a base of clay, sand or the ubiquitous local ironstone rock.

The combination of these specific geological elements with our cool maritime climate gives an environment in which premium wine grapes thrive.

What might be less well known is the fact that Mount Barker’s rocky, gum tree-strewn land was only recognised as being ideal for viticulture at all due to pure chance and a visiting American. Professor Harold Olmo was invited to Western Australia in 1955, initially to solve a dilemma of dying vines in Perth’s sun-baked Swan Valley. While there, however, he headed south to the Great Southern and recommended that Mount Barker showed great promise for making quality wines in a “traditional European style”. History has more than endorsed his foresight.

Winemaking Philosophy

Our aim is simple, and one which has stood Plantagenet in good stead since its inception – to produce the best wine possible. Wine that is elegant, balanced, well-structured and complex. Wine that reflects our distinctive cool climate, and our passion for excellence.

All fruit is sourced from our own vineyards within the Great Southern, where we believe the most important practical aspect of winemaking is picking at optimal flavour ripeness. Only the finest grapes go into our flagship wines, and once they are picked and inside the winery, they are strictly are hand-crafted and receive optimum attention.

Quality as always remains the top priority, regardless of market pressures – if a particular vintage doesn’t give the best quality Shiraz, for example, the wine doesn’t get released. Simple as that.

Our Wines

Plantagenet Riesling - The key to Riesling is the temperature (COLD!) and a reductive environment (no oxygen to oxidize fruit character or promote premature ageing).

We start in the vineyard by trying to pick a number of batches, all of which will contribute to a range of characters from minerally, lemon peel and pear characters to lime leaf, subtle grapefruit and perhaps now and then a subtle floral character.

The grapes are harvested at night and processed using an older technique of draining off after a short period of time on skins (15 minutes). This allows the bulk of the skins to rise a little, leaving the majority of the free run juice has been removed and is settled cold with a small amount of fining. Clean juice is racked off after a few days and fermented with 2 known yeast strains over a period of 2 weeks at between 12 - 15 degrees celcius.

Post fermentation, cleaning up and blending happens fairly quickly, and the result is a young wine that has extremely fresh and crisp acidity, displays all the wonderful characters described above and will age for 10 - 20 years with a wonderfully subtle toasty/honeyed character.

Plantagenet Chardonnay - A different approach all together for Chardonnay, but very important for the style we are trying to achieve. Harvesting for our oaked style is all done by hand, which allows us to chill the fruit down to about 5ºC and “whole bunch press” it.

Whole bunch pressing does a number of things; it minimizes phenolic extraction which reduces bitterness and compounds that could cause the wine to go brown; it minimizes the amount of solids that come out of the wine.

This is important because at this point the juice is on its own. No Yeast, no other additions, we just wait for the wild yeast to start fermenting and watch it closely every day. Why wild Yeast? We are trying to make Chardonnay with complexity, that sparks interest, that makes people think. Using wild yeast is equivalent to using 4 different kinds of yeast, it provides complexity and wonderful palate textures. It also means we avoid Malolactic fermentation which can make the palate look very fat and flabby, instead we retain a wonderful fine acid structure.

Oak is a combination of new, 1 & 2 year old barrels in equal amounts, and is a blend of cooperages that offer a subtle oak influence. This marries well with the delicate chardonnay that we get from our cool climate, and does not over power the fruit. 

After 8 months in oak, our Chardonnay is blended (on an individual barrel basis) and bottled, ready for release in 3 to 4 months. This style of Chardonnay we believe hits its straps at 2 years of age, and continues for another 3 years to look fantastic.

Plantagenet Shiraz - Shiraz in the Great Southern is known for producing wines with a complex mix of spicy, peppery and aniseed characters combined with strong berry fruit, blueberry and raspberry characters, and some brambly/earthy notes to finish. Our belief is that generally our extremes in diurnal temperatures through out the growing season (we can still have cold nights all throughout summer) contribute to the spicy/peppery characters and the finer palate structure, and that the heat during the day through February and March contributes to wonderful berry fruit characters.

We wait until those facets of the fruit can be seen in the grapes before we pick. The grapes are fermented in stainless steel vats, which include both closed and open fermenters (the latter for small batch processing). We employ a regime of pump overs and delestage for the closed fermenters and plunging and pump overs for our open fermenters. We like our ferments to start off warm (28 degrees celcius) and finish about 20 degrees celcius which minimizes any over phenolics or bitterness.

Maturation and MLF take place in French Oak, which is comprised of 35% New Oak from selected cooperages including Francois Frere and Sylvain. Maturation is usually around 16 - 18 months. A rigorous blending regime is employed to get the best wine possible, followed by minimal fining and filtration before bottling.

Plantagenet Cabernet Sauvignon - Cabernet Sauvignon from the Great Southern, and particularly the style that we make, is made up of a number of distinct characteristics. The fruit characters are made up of a strong earthy, minerally character which is unique to most Cabernet produced in Australia. This is backed up with red berry, red currant, cassis and mint in most years, and in cooler years there may be a slight herbal edge. The tannins are generally firm medium bodied and our wines do retain a lot of natural acidity due to the cooler climate and later harvest dates for Cabernet. This makes a wine that has the potential for ageing well in the 10 - 20 year bracket.

Picking and fermentation are generally similar to Shiraz except for different yeast strains which promote different fruit characters.

Post fermentation some batches are left on skins for up to 4 weeks which encourages a very fine and balanced tannin structure, and also helps to add texture and flesh to the final blend. Oak regime is approximately 40% new French Oak and the balance is older Oak, be it French or American. This is normally for 24 months.

Fining and filtering occurs as for the Shiraz.

We do try and get over 6 months bottle age on the Cabernet before release, to allow any tannic edge to dissipate and to make it more approachable on release.

Vineyard Notes

From classic varieties to exciting experimentals, Plantagenet has always strived to select the ideal site for all its vines.

Plantagenet Wines, Mount Barker
Technical information
Average rainfall: 736mm (29 inches)
Growing season rainfall :    279 mm (11 inches)
Average annual temperature: 20.1˚C (68.2˚F)
Average January temperature: 26.1 (79ºF)
Altitude: 300m (984 feet)
Average sunshine hours, Oct-Apr:       1518
Average relative daytime humidity, Oct-Apr:  55%
(Similar to Bordeaux)

Plantagenet Wines’ total area under vine: 127 ha (311 acres)
Pruning: Generally, whites cane pruned, reds spur pruned
Irrigation: Occasional drip irrigation, only when strictly necessary

Bouverie
Established: 1968
Area under vine: 8.6HA
Soil type: deep gravel loam.
Aspect: North facing slope.
Rainfall: Approximately 730mm (28.7 inches) annually, falling mainly in winter and spring.
Varieties planted, date, hectares (acres):
Cabernet Sauvignon, 1968, 1 (2.5)
Shiraz, 1968, 1 (2.5)
Chardonnay, 1980, 0.8 (2)
Pinot Noir, 1981, 0.5 (1.2)
Shiraz, 1986, 0.8 (2)
Shiraz, 1990, 4 (9.8)
Sangiovese, 2002, 0.5 (1.2)

Rocky Horror 1
Established: 1988
Area under vine: 27HA
Soil type: Sandy Loam, gravel over clay.
Aspect: North and west facing.
Rainfall: Approximately 750mm (29.5 inches) annually, falling mainly in winter and spring.
Varieties planted, date, hectares (acres):
Cabernet Sauvignon, 1998, 6 (14.7)
Chardonnay, 1998, 4 (9.8)
Cabernet Franc, 1998, 2 (5)
Merlot, 1998, 2 (5)
Chardonnay, 1995, 4 (9.8)
Chardonnay, 1996, 4.8 (11.9)
Chardonnay, 2000, 1.6 (4)
Viognier, 2002, 0.5 (1.2)
Pinot Noir, 2002, 2 (5)

Rocky Horror 2
Established: 1997
Area under vine: 44HA
Soil type: Sandy Loam, gravel over clay.
Aspect: North facing slope.
Rainfall: Approximately 750mm (29.5 inches) annually, falling mainly in winter and spring.
Varieties planted, date, hectares (acres):
Shiraz, 1999, 24 (59)
Pinot Noir, 1999, 4.25 (10.5)
Chardonnay, 1999, 5.4 (13.3)
Merlot, 1999, 7.5 (18.5)
Cabernet Sauvignon, 2000, 2.5 (6.2)
Sangiovese, 2002, 0.4 (1)

Rosetta
Established: 1999
Area Under Vine: 28.6HA
Soil type: Heavy clay loam.
Aspect: Westerly facing slope.
Rainfall: Around 700mm (27.6 inches) annually, falling mainly in winter and spring.
Varieties planted, date, hectares (acres):
Chardonnay, 2001, 7.3 (18)
Merlot, 2001, 10.3 (25.5)
Sauvignon Blanc, 2001, 6.3 (15.6)
Riesling, 2003, 2.25 (5.5)
Sauvignon Blanc, 2003, 2.5 (6.2)

Wyjup
Established: 1971
Area under vine: 18.8HA
Soil Type: Ranging from deep gravel loam to sand.
Aspect: North facing slope.
Rainfall: Around 730mm (28.7 inches) annually, falling mainly in winter and spring.
Varieties planted, date, hectares (acres):
Riesling, 1971, 4 (9.8)
Shiraz, 1972, 3.5 (8.6)
Cabernet Sauvignon, 1972, 1.6 (3.9)
Chardonnay, 1973, 2.5 (6.2)
Cabernet Sauvignon, 1974, 2 (5)
Cabernet Sauvignon, 1975, 2 (5)
Riesling, 1976, 3.24 (8)

Plantagenet Wines is committed to continuing its philosophy of making the finest wines possible from Mount Barker and the Great Southern region, and to ensure that as many people throughout Australia and the world, have the opportunity to try them, taste them and enjoy them as much as we do.