John and Patricia Kennedy have been working their plot of land in the region as first generation farmers for more than 35 years. With extensive experience producing high-quality produce, the family decided to purchase a prime position block on the Mount Camel Range to establish a vineyard. In the early 2000s they planted Shiraz, followed by Mourvèdre and Tempranillo in 2007.
Eldest son Sean and his young family work alongside John and Pat, running the farm and vineyard. Youngest son Gerard now heads up the winemaking side of the business, working with the team at Kooyong to produce this range of authentic wines that deliver a true expression of place and time, with elegance and freshness.
"We believe that quality wines start in the vineyard. For this reason, we view grape growing and production as such an important step in the process. We put a lot of emphasis on the production of high quality fruit from our low yielding vines and believe this goes along way to allowing us to take a more hands off approach to our winemaking. All of our wines receive minimal intervention from day one...
Everything is wild fermented, wild Malo, no corrections nor filtration or fining and with minimal SO2 added."
Gerard Kennedy
2017 Kennedy 'Pink Hills' Rosé
100% Mourvedre
2.5T/acre
Handpicked at 240m elevation on Cambrian soils (Iron rich with jasper, chert, seafloor basalt/greenstone). Mourvedre is wholebunch pressed direct to old French barrique to complete wild primary fermentation for a little over 14 days with occasional battonage towards the end of ferment.
Post wild primary fermentation, the wine is lightly sulphured to prevent malolactic fermentation occuring. The resulting wine is round and textured thanks to barrel fermentation but retains a pristine line of acidity. The wine remains on lees for 7 months in old french barriques before being sent to bottle without correction.
Bottled unfined and unfiltered with 55mg/l SO2 added.
2017 Henrietta Shiraz
100% Shiraz
2.6T/acre
Handpicked as bunches at 240m elevation on Cambrian soils (Iron rich with jasper, chert, seafloor basalt/greenstone). Shiraz is destemmed to whole berry. The fruit is cold soaked initially for a total of 5 days before commencing wild fermentation in open top stainless steel vessels on skins for a total of 18 days.
With gentle pumpovers for the first 2-5 days at the height of ferment and followed by hand plunging, the resulting juice is later racked to old French oak where it completes wild malolactic fermentation and is left to mature for 8 months.
Unfined and with 52.8mg/l SO2 added.
2015 Kennedy Heathcote Shiraz
100% Shiraz
2T/acre
Handpicked as bunches at 240m elevation on Cambrian soils (Iron rich with jasper, chert, seafloor basalt/greenstone). Shiraz is 70% destemmed whilst the remaining 30% remains as wholebunches, the fruit undergoes 4 days of cold soak before wild fermentation commences in open top stainless steel vessels for a total of 7 days. Gentle pumpovers occur once daily for first 2-3 days followed by hand plunging until pressing
The wine remains on skins for a total of 18 days before being pressed to a combination of old French oak and 15% new French oak. Here, the resulting wine completes full wild malolactic fermentation and matures on lees for a total of 11 months before it is racked and blended to bottle.
Unfined, unfiltered and 50mg/l SO2 added.
2015 Kennedy 'Cambria' Barrel Selection
100% Shiraz
2T/acre
Handpicked as bunches at 240m elevation on Cambrian soils (Iron rich with jasper, chert, seafloor basalt/greenstone). Shiraz is 70% destemmed whilst the remaining 30% remains as wholebunches, the fruit undergoes 4 days of cold soak before wild fermentation commences in open top stainless steel vessels for a total of 7 days. Gentle pumpovers occur once daily for first 2-3 days followed by hand plunging until pressing
The wine remains on skins for a total of 18 days before being pressed to a combination of old French oak and 20% new French oak. Here, the resulting wine completes full malolactic fermentation and matures on lees for a total of 13 months before it is racked to rest again in oak for an additional 6 months.
Unfined, unfiltered and 53mg/l SO2 added.