HADDOW + DINEEN is a collaborative winemaking project from cheesemaker, Nick Haddow, and winemaker, Jeremy Dineen.
You would be hard pressed to find someone with a deeper understanding of the complexities of Tasmanian viticulture than Jeremy. He has led the winemaking team at Josef Chromy since 2005 where he also makes wine under contract for some of the better labels in Tasmania. Inspired by the intense quality of the fruit from the Yorktown Vineyard, it didn’t take much for Jeremy to talk Nick into making some wine together.
Nick is the founder of Bruny Island Cheese and Bruny Island Beer. He also runs a small organic dairy farm in the Huon Valley. Nick has always dabbled on the fringes of winemaking – he grew up in South Australia and has spent much of his life hanging out with vignerons and winemakers. This project has given him the chance to finally get his hands dirty.
Winemaking
Our approach to our winemaking is traditional and uncomplicated.
Fermentation occurs naturally, our wines are not filtered or fined and when we add sulphur, we do so in minimal amounts. We are big on producing textural wines, so the ferments get plenty of elbow grease and this also informs our barrel selection.
It’s a small vineyard and the wines are made in small batches. Rather than influencing the wine through blending, we prefer to use every barrel in its entirety, so each wine is an honest representation of both vintage and site. It’s a bit like nose-to-tail winemaking.
Our core belief is that great fruit, from special places, guided by the right hands is what makes great wine. We value ‘maximum consideration’ over ‘minimal intervention’ – for every wine we produce, there are a thousand choices to be made about whether to impose ourselves or simply employ vigilant inaction.
Viticulture
Our grapes are sourced exclusively from a single, tiny vineyard in Yorktown, near the mouth of the Tamar River in northern Tasmania. The three-hectare vineyard is uniquely situated on white quartzite gravel with patches of orange clay. It was first planted to Pinot Noir in 1998 with Pinot Gris added in 2005.
This is a tough place to grow grapes – the vines take up to six years to develop to the point where they can support fruit production. Given the austerity of the site, the fruit is incredibly intense, and the vines are very low yielding.
Miles Davis — 'I always listen to what I can leave out.'
