Upper Tintara Vineyard & Winery
My great-great grandfather Thomas Hardy purchased the Upper Tintara Vineyard from the legendary Dr AC Kelly in 1871. Under Thomas’ custodianship the business grew quickly, and at one point there were 360 residents at the site, tending 283 hectares of vineyard, all bush vines, and making mainly fortified wines for export to the British Empire.
Today my siblings and I are the proud custodians of the beautiful 138 hectare property, which consists of native protected scrub and approximately 35ha of vines, including the Ancestor Vine Shiraz, millennium Shiraz plantings (including the Moreton Bay Block), Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. There are small amounts of Touriga, Cinsault and Fiano as well as 1971 plantings of Sauvignon Blanc used for Fortified.
The site is also home to the original Upper Tintara Winery, which fell into disuse in 1923 following Thomas’ death in 1912. The original gravity fed design of the cellars with slate fermenters was the template for many wineries in the district including Kay Brothers and Wirra Wirra. In 2018, I made wine using the original slate open fermenters for the first time in 95 years.
