We received some very nice words and scores for our Springs Road Wines from Campbell Mattinson from the 2024 Halliday Wine Companion.
2021 Springs Road ‘Terre Napoleon Shiraz (96 points)
Fresh, complex and well-structured all at once, and yet with straight-out drinkability left intact. This is the kind of savoury-styled wine that you really do want to hook into, within the bounds of price and general alcohol responsibility of course. Black pepper, twiggy spice, cloves and prime cuts of juicy black cherries and plums. Beautiful.
2022 little island rosé by Springs Road (94 points)
A dry style, well made and presented. Spiced strawberry and cherry flavours all juicy and appealing before a textural, well-honed, satisfying finish. It doesn’t put a foot wrong.
2022 Springs Road Chardonnay (93 points)
Organically grown, fermented wild in barrel, 30% new oak, no mlf. This is a fresh, almost racy style; pears and citrus, grapefruit, all the juices dripping, the flesh too, it’s all there. Cedar oak is apparent if you go looking but as we all know, it’s rude to look and anyway the fruit is the champion here. What oak there is is happy for the fruit to shine. It puts a smile on your face, this wine.
East Coast Visitors
AKA Bhav and Ted’s excellent adventures: James and his merry crew from World Wine Estates sell our wines in NSW to retailers and restaurants all across the state. James has represented our wines for about 15 years now, maybe even longer. He took on Battle of Bosworth just after we won the trophy for Best Wine of Show at the 2005 Organic Wine Show with a Battle of Bosworth Shiraz Viognier, as I recall. Since then he has taken on Spring Seed Wine Co and now our KI wines. Joch and I hosted his two newest sales representatives, Bhav and Ted for a weekend in McLaren Vale and on Kangaroo Island.
The Trip
We collected B and T from Adelaide and took them for a whirlwind tour of the Bosworth vineyards and a tasting at cellar door, before heading to the magnificent Victory Hotel at Sellicks for a quick lunch.
Before this, Bhav and Ted put together the definitive blend of the 2023 Heretic, our McLaren Vale medley of alternative varieties (Graciano/ Touriga and Shiraz). Can you see the % breakdown? It’s not rocket science, winemaking , is it?
Island Time
After lunch we drove down the beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula and hopped onto the ferry and chugged over to the island. It has been quite a wild and woolly winter as far as KI ferry crossings have gone (quite a few cancellations), but we were lucky with this one, it was nice and calm. After all of this sitting and eating and drinking, we needed some exercise.
It’s my favourite thing to do with visitors, driving along Hog Bay Road on the way to Springs Road and then stopping at Prospect Hill and looking at all those steps and watching the faces of the visitors. It’s an awesome climb and well worth doing; you get to see the narrowest part of the island, with panoramic views of Pelican lagoon and Pennington Bay.
Did we do it? Yes we did!
Cygnet River
Springs Road is located in the Cygnet River area of the island. The solid winter rains mean the Cygnet is very full and looked amazing with the sun going down and the reflection of the gums on the water.
Cygnet River is home to our friends up the road at Islander Estate Vineyards, KI Spirits and the very new Kangaroo Island Wool. From a looking out of the car window as you are driving along kind of persepective however, the most entertaining thing to see as you cruise along the Playford Highway are the mobs of wild turkeys. They are awesome and massive and ridiculous all at once. We saw so many of them. Because Kangaroo Island doesn’t have any foxes, they are safe as houses just going about their business on the ground, although I think they fly up into the trees to roost at night.
North and South
Stokes Bay was voted most beautiful beach in Australia 2023 by beach expert Brad Farmer for Tourism Australia. The beach is in a secluded bay on the North Coast of Kangaroo Island, some 50kms from Kingscote (and about 40km from us at Springs Road). The drive there is pretty and the whole north coast is spectacular. I normally just head out of the vineyards and drive up Springs Road but we had to duck back to Kingscote so headed our via North Coast Road. A far superiour route, IMHO.
It is a magical spot because it is so unexpected – I won’t give the game away for those that haven’t visited, but will leave you dangling. When we arrived at the car park, there is various signage warning you not to tread on any plovers, and a little rocky beach which was covered in seeaweed. Bhav failed to hide her disappointment… but then….
Vivonne Bay
Last stop in the packed itinerary was for whiting burgers at the Vivonne Bay General Store, and a mooch along the Vivonne Bay jetty. I could see that Joch was itching to have a fish. The whiting were biting, apparently. Not this time Bozzie. Vivonne Bay is well worth a visit, it’s on the south of the island – next stop Antarctica. The water is a bit brisker this side of the island. Can you see that gull nesting on the post to the left?
And then it was next stop Kingscote Airport for a quick flight back to Adelaide before flying back to Sydney in time for tea. Thanks for coming Bhav and Ted, see you next time.