‘Original Vineyard’

The Bindi property was originally part of the Bundaleer homestead purchased by Keith and Thea King (Dixon) in 1956. The original planting of vines, in 1988, saw Chardonnay and Pinot Noir replace sheep as the focus for Bindi. The timber milling days of the King family gave way to nurturing vines as well as diversification into farm forestry and the preservation of rare grass and woodlands that Michael Dhillon continues today. The ‘Original Vineyard’ were the first vines planted by Michael’s father Bill in 1988. This quartz riddled, gently north sloping three-acre vineyard produces a wine in comparison to the Block Five, that is more seductive and delicious in its youth whilst still significantly rewarding cellar time. This wine is like a kaleidoscope of Bindi in that the fragments of the incredible site and grapes are seen in abstract pieces that furl creating pure harmony.

The grapes were hand-harvested and primarily destemmed with around 5% being left intact. All of the fruit was gently crushed and fermented in open-top one-ton fermenters with gentle hand plunging early in the ferment moving to light pumpovers later on. After two weeks the free run was sent to barrel while the remaining fruit is pressed directly to barrel as well. The wine aged for 16 months in French barriques, of which about a quarter were new. The wine was bottled in the winter of 2020 without fining or filtration and with a small addition of sulfur.