Today, we offer the Place of Changing Winds (POCW) Grower Series wines, mainly from the cooler, later-ripening 2022 season. These wines are the product of more than a decade of experimentation and learning in both the vineyard and the cellar. The results are seriously impressive (if we can say that on the team’s behalf!) The Syrahs have fabulous intensity and structure. They’re savoury yet with excellent finesse. The Marsanne Roussanne is true to this estate’s deep, layered style. The vineyards. These wines come from two very different single-vineyard sites. Harcourt is a small, unique sub-zone in the Bendigo G.I., at the base of Mount Alexander. The soils here are pure, granitic sands (old eroded granite)—very Northern Rhône-like—and the climate is cool, with harvest in March and often late March. This vineyard lies about an hour’s drive north of the POCW estate. Syrah, Marsanne and Roussanne come from this site. The second Syrah plot is found about 90 minutes further north, on the east-facing slopes of the Mount Camel Range in the north of the Heathcote G.I. Here, you find the famed red Cambrian soils, an alkaline soil shot through with jasper and greenstone. The practice. This is not your average fruit purchase. In both cases, the team at POCW works extremely closely with the growers, being actively involved in the whole season, from pruning and shoot thinning, then agreeing on all vineyard practices throughout the season, right through to the picking, in POCW’s own, small picking crates that hold a maximum of 10kg of fruit. These vineyards are very different from the POCW estate, having been planted by these growers more than 20 years ago, but the viticulture and practice have been aligned completely to match the POCW philosophy. In short, the team allows competition in the soil, practises organics, adds compost (if necessary) rather than fertiliser, short prunes, uses hydric deficit, etc. This is all done with the goal of having smaller, intensely flavoured bunches and berries, and reaching full physiological ripeness at lower alcohols (the Syrahs below are around 13%). The wines. The Harcourt 2022 is the finest and most refined Syrah we’ve seen from this site. The Syrah No2 is also markedly finer than the ’21. It’s the same for the Grower Series white, now labelled Harcourt Marsanne Roussanne, reflecting the 25% Roussanne included in the blend. Finally, the Heathcote Syrah, now released with an extra year of aging in large cask, comes from the 2021 vintage. It’s a deep, complex, savoury Syrah, as the notes below make clear. The season. As for the 2022 vintage, Heathcote enjoyed a dream season with good winter and spring rains (rarely a given in this region), followed by a dry summer and ripening period. The grapes were harvested between 25th and 27th February (late for Heathcote) with perfectly ripe fruit at just over 13% potential alcohol. The Harcourt block, being in a considerably cooler place, was picked a full month later, on 26th March. Again, ripeness was perfect, with superb flavour and potential alcohols of around 13%. The POCW team harvested all the fruit themselves to ensure it was picked at precisely the right moment.