Old Block
Located 190km west of Melbourne at the craggy southern edge of the Great Dividing Range in Western Victoria, the remote Grampians region is home to Australia’s pioneering, now iconic, cool climate Mount Langi Ghiran Langi Shiraz.
It is also home to some of the world’s oldest Shiraz clonal material, the so-called Swiss clone (or Great Western clone), which predates phylloxera in the Rhône.
The Swiss clone arrived courtesy of French and Swiss immigrants who, lured by the prospect of gold, settled in the Grampians in the mid-19th century.
They soon planted the first generation of vines in the Great Western area. Unlike gold, vines have stayed the course.
In 1969, when the Fratin brothers founded Mount Langi Ghiran, they sourced Swiss clone cuttings from Best’s Great Western’s Nursery Vineyard, planted by Henry Best in 1866.
The Fratins planted them in soils which Damien Sheehan – a veteran of 28 Mount Langi Ghiran vintages – calls ‘granite-infused loam’.
Scroll down for Sarah Ahmed’s Mount Langi Ghiran tasting…
Source : https://www.decanter.com.master.public.keystone-prod-eks-euw1.futureplc.engineering/premium/mount-langi-ghiran-a-masterclass-in-signature-shiraz-542067/
