Grosset Springvale Vineyard
The hilltop-sited Springvale is the highest (460 metres) and coolest vineyard in the Watervale sub-region. Planted on red loam over limestone, for which this area is renowned, this is a soft rock site. This highly sustaining combination of soil and rock insulates the drought sensitive riesling vines, which produce lime-green fruit with medium-sized berries and fuller bunches. Springvale is named after the original property where riesling vines were first planted in the 1860s.
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Grosset Polish Hill Vineyard
Located at the base of Mount Horrocks, at an elevation of 460 metres, the Polish Hill vineyard is a hard rock site with shallow shale and a crust of clay marl over slate. These thin soils hamper the roots downward development, so the vines struggle. Relatively close-planted (by Australian standards), a modified ballerina training system provides ideal exposure. The fruit is typically small, in berry and bunch size. Natural composting and hand-tending have been practiced since 1996.
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Grosset Gaia Vineyard
Planted in the 1980s with cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, the Gaia vineyard is named after James Lovelock's original book. Lovelock proposed the Gaia Hypothesis, now Gaia Theory, that the Earth is a single organism, reliant on the complexity and diversity of its species to maintain ecological health. At an altitude of 570 metres (the highest vineyard in the Clare Valley), this isolated and windswept vineyard has been farmed continuously for twenty-five years in accordance with this prescient concept.
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Grosset Adelaide Hills Vineyards
Grosset Wines’ chardonnay, pinot noir and sauvignon blanc grapes are grown in three privately owned vineyards in the Adelaide Hills. In the early 1990s, Grosset was drawn to the intriguing high-acid fruit from these sites. Two are in the Piccadilly Valley, the second coldest place in South Australia, and for that reason, they can be accurately described as ‘marginal’. In terms of quality however, the rewards of working with such challenging sites have proved to be substantial.