Clarendon Hills (wine)

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For other uses, see Clarendon Hills (disambiguation).

Clarendon Hills
Location	Clarendon, McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia
Wine region	McLaren Vale
Founded	1989
Key people	Roman Bratasiuk
Parent company	NA
Known for	Astralis
Varietals	Shiraz, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot

Clarendon Hills is an Australian winery, founded in 1989 by Roman Bratasiuk. The winery is most famous for its Astralis wine which is considered to be one of Australias best wines.

1 History
2 Roman Bratasiuk
3 Wines
4 References

[edit] History

In 1989 Roman Bratasiuk founded Clarendon Hills winery in McLaren Vale, Clarendon 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Adelaide in Southern Australia. The location was choosen because of many old vineyards, 50 to 80 years old planted with Grenache and Syrah grapes on poor and rocky soil. Roman tied the vineyards up for long term contracts and started making single vineyard wines. Today there is lots of single vine yard wines in Australia, but when Roman started in 1989 it was not that common. He started becoming known for his Grenache, but today it is his Syrah wine, named Astralis that is most famous. In 1996 wine critic Robert Parker tasted the 1994 Astralis and wrote in issue 110 of his newsletter:

“

This is the hottest wine in Australian wine circles, as it came out ahead of two great vintages of Henschke and Penfolds’ Grange in a recent tasting. If readers can believe it, it is a bigger denser, more concentrated wine than the Grange

”

and in issue 108 (1996) he named Roman wine producer of the year. After this Astralis became a cult wine.^[1]

[edit] Roman Bratasiuk

Roman is a child of Ukrainian immigrants, he grew up to become a biochemist. In 1970 he planted a vineyard and made wine on a very small scale. In 1989 he quit his job in a goverment toxicology lab to become a full time wine maker.^[1]

[edit] Wines

Clarendon Hills produces Syrah, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot wines. All single vineyard, single varietal wines. All produced from low yielding, dry grown old vines which are hand pruned, hand picked. All wines are aged in Burgundian barriques.