About
Wimmera Hills Winery Mrs Baker's Still House High in the upper reaches of the Wimmera basin, grazing country meets rugged forest. Hot days and cold nights. Sparse soil over shattered sandstone. This is the Pyrenees Ranges; this is where great shiraz is born. Wimmera hills winery tempers the austerity of the renowned Pyrenees style with carefully handmade wine. Wine maker, Benjamin Baker, attentively nurtures each vintage mixing the best of traditional techniques with innovative ideas and technology. Adding to the range of wines are a delightful selection of Mrs Baker's still house gins and liqueurs. As the name suggests, these are a passion of Benjamin's wife, Jane. They have a boutique distillery making gins with locally grown & some imported botanicals. The Triple Sec, a sweet orange liqueur is made from the zest of wild oranges foraged from their valley in the Pyrenees Ranges, Victoria. Benjamin came to winemaking after a successful career as IT-control system engineer. He has applied his technologist skills to the old art of wine making; and is not afraid to try something new, and create new styles of wines. With formal training in viticulture from Burnley College, Melbourne and further training in winemaking from Dookie College, Victoria he decided the first step to winemaking is plant a new vineyard in in 2001. His vineyard is in the beautiful Wimmera River upper catchment of the Pyrenees Ranges. The first vintage was in 2005; the wine is made and bottled on site. The terroir of the Pyrenees produces stunning fruit, which means that low intervention wines are a dream to make, and allow the quality of the berries shine through. Jane says that it is the beauty of the Pyrenees Ranges that makes the wine so great – and there is probably some truth in that: beautiful surroundings make happy winemakers, and happy winemakers make beautiful wines. Same can be said for the distillers, they seem pretty happy too. |
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