Von Schubert Abtsberg -Vineyard Maximin Grunhauser Riesling Ausl 2002

As anywhere, good wine begins in the vineyard and what is most important for a great wine is the terroir of the vineyard - the combination of soil and climate. Here, at the Schubert vineyards, relatively mild winters and a slow ripening season couples with hand-pruning and hand-picking of low cropping vines to consistently produce fruit of excellent quality. The Australian wine industry is proudly based on its vines, which date back to the first days of settlement, when pioneering hands planted their cuttings. As the creator of Penfold’s Grange Hermitage, Max Schubert once said, “I’d like to believe that the wines with which I have been associated are descended from one old ancestor vineyard established many years ago, marrying with another, and another, and even another if you like, thus creating and establishing a dynasty of wines. These may differ in character year by year, but all ... bear an unmistakable resemblance and relationship to each other and to the original ancestral starter member of the dynasty." Schubert Estate began originally in the early 1900s when a Schubert family settled on Roennfeldt Road. Steve Schubert bought Arthur Schubert's 65-acre property in the 1980s unfortunately by then all the vines were derelict. Steve began with the task in renovating the old iron-stone house and in 1991 Steve sectioned off six acres and planted it with three acres each of shiraz and semillon vines. In 1996 Steve prepared two acres of the L-shaped piece of land which surrounded the goose-yard and planned for it to be planted with Shiraz rootlings. By the year 2000 Steve and Cecilia decided that with a total of approx 32 acres planted to vineyard it was time to cease planting. Read less