In the cool-climate Whitlands high plateau region of Victoria, Holly’s Garden is home to voluptuous pinot gris and artisan sparkling wines.
Made by the one and only Neil Prentice, one of the great characters in the industry and a truly original thinker and maker. Grown at 750 metres in the deep volcanic soils of the Whitlands high plateau. A natural amphitheatre provides the warmest site in the very cool region. The continental location gives cool evenings, which allows the vines to ‘rest’ at night and delays the accumulation of sugar whilst retaining acidity and building flavour. This prolonged ‘hang time’ due to delayed ripening is vital to the production of great wine, and helps create the featured structure and length of Holly’s Garden wines.
The deep, open structure of the soil draw the roots downward, allowing a no irrigation philosophy. Wines from these soil types typically have a ferrous, robust mineral character, giving our wines incredible length and balance. Some biodynamic viticulture is practiced, not for altruistic reasons, but to make better wine by growing better grapes.
To Neil, it is as much Pagan Viticulture as Biodynamic Viticulture, and is an inherited, instinctive understanding passed from parent to child, over many generations since the reformation of the church in Middle Europe.
