Sanctuary Hill Vineyard is located at Faraday, in the Bendigo region, and the vineyard is named after the Koala Sanctuary that exists on Mt Alexander above the vineyard. The vineyard was planted in 1999 with the first fruit being picked in 2003.We searched far and wide from Bridgewater to Toolleen to Heathcote looking for a suitable site until, by chance, found the property at Faraday.
Simon’s entry to the wine industry started at age 13 years when his father developed a boutique winery in Geelong called “Asher” vineyard. The vineyard grew with production of approx 5 tonnes and Cellar door sales.
The plans for Sanctuary Hill are to develop cellar door sales, have some event based sales functions during the year but to mainly market through retailers and restaurants.
We have a rootstock trial running at the vineyard which we hope to identify the best rootstock for the Faraday/Harcourt area and communicate that to the Bendigo region.
A high planting density and high bud numbers are utilised to maximise skin to juice ratio, VSP trellising, shoot thinning, minimal irrigation, Multiple stages of picking an assembling final blends are techniques being used to maximise flavour and quality from the vineyard.
We will continue to produce Shiraz, a Cab. Sauvignon/Merlot/Cab. Franc and plan to produce a dessert style Semillon.