The varieties we nurture here at Toppers Mountain have been perfected over centuries in the sun-drenched Mediterranean hills. We went to listen, taste, and learn from the makers.
In October, we traced the roots of our own vines back to where they all began— Italy, Portugal, and Spain.
We returned knowing our mountains are young, but the varieties we carry have years of Mediterranean wisdom in their DNA.
Piedmont: Nebbiolo
Our journey began in Barolo’s steep hills. At Domenico Clerico and GD Vajra, we tasted what Nebbiolo becomes with generations of knowledge behind it. But it was the morning spent truffle hunting near Alba that really hit home—terroir isn’t just soil and climate, it’s the whole ecosystem working together. You can’t fake that or rush it.
In Rioja, we had a special visit to Bodegas Pedro Garcia to try their single varietal Tempranillo Blanco. This got us excited, as the only commercial producers of the fruit and wine in Australia or New Zealand. We also saw José Pariente’s approach to Verdejo—fermenting in three different vessels then combining—very familiar to us here at Toppers.
Old Vines, Ancient Wisdom
In the Douro Valley, Symington’s reserve ports come from field-blend vineyards with no irrigation, no American rootstock, and vines minimum 60 years old. They plant just 1 to 1.5 meters apart. Unthinkable by modern Australian standards where we chase efficiency. Yet these struggling, densely-packed vines produce ports of such concentration and complexity.
Changing Climates, and Australia’s Ability to Adapt
Watching Rioja’s vineyards climb to 750 metres to preserve acidity while temperatures rise felt very familiar. We’re facing the same challenge in Australia where our scorching summers continue arriving earlier each year. Watching Roda’s solar-heated-and-cooled winery, seeing their plot-by-plot vinification approach, we realised the Mediterranean isn’t just our past; it’s a preview of our shared future.
On more than one occasion, winemakers commented on our ability to best express our wines through small interventions, rather than being stuck in DOC appellations which are not keeping with changes in viticultural needs given climate change. New England’s youth as a wine region is paradoxically its strength. While Rioja’s DO regulations dictate everything from oak provenance to minimum aging times, Topper’s operates unconstrained by history. When the 2019 bushfire reduced our gewürztraminer to just 516 bottles, we could pivot to skin-contact fermentation in seasoned French barrels, creating an orange wine, a response impossible under rigid appellation rules.
That flexibility is considered adaptation. By 2050, New England’s climate will resemble Mudgee’s, and by 2100, the Riverina’s. Australian winemakers can adjust our techniques annually rather than waiting decades for regulatory bodies to catch up with climate reality. This means we can make our own climate and terroir driven decisions and design their own future within a quickly changing climate.
Sierra de Francia: Finding Kindred Spirits
At Vinos La Zorra we got to explore nine indigenous varieties on granite soil at altitude, thriving where the textbooks say they shouldn’t. Their Rufete is a delicate varietal dancing in an impossible microclimate.
This wasn’t just inspiring—it validated our own “fruit salad” approach. We planted 20 varieties between 1998-2002, then eliminated eight due to botrytis susceptibility in New England’s high-rainfall conditions. This mirrors George Wyndham’s 1845 approach on the same land (Toppers is named after the Topper brothers who worked Wyndham’s original holding). What La Zorra achieves with nine indigenous varieties on granite at altitude, we’ve been pursuing at 900m on volcanic Krasnozem soils: finding what thrives rather than forcing what’s fashionable.
Our current 19-variety lineup including Gewürztraminer, Manseng, Tannat and Touriga Nacional, represents survivors that revel in their terroir.
Lessons in Foot Treading
At Quinta do Vallado, they insist foot-treading produces deeper, more intense flavors for specific wines. Some dismiss foot-treading as romantic theater, but tasting their Saucene, their only foot-trodden non-port single varietal, was a lesson in tradition and differentiation. Quinta do Villado know that their wine and ports have a textural complexity, a presence that mechanical processing can’t replicate. We got to see the granite lagares where foot-trodden fermentation happens, learning about the human heat and friction that helps fermentation get started.
They have a strict policy on oak, which must be French and can only be used three times to ensure microporosity remains. This helps let the fruit speak without the oak shouting over it—one of our own core philosophies. Mike Hayes’ mantra is “to express the terroir of the vineyard and not the barrel maker from the south of France.”
At Toppers, wild yeast from the vineyard triggers every fermentation—no commercial strains imposing their manufactured flavor profile. We’ve experimented with extended skin contact (180 days in qvevri for a touriga/tinto cão/tempranillo blend) and skin fermentation for whites (sauvignon blanc/verdejo/grüner veltliner from the Hill of Dreams section).
These techniques share Quinta do Villado’s commitment to textural complexity, but where Portuguese tradition dictates three-use French oak barrels, we respond to each vintage individually. Some years that means oak, others stainless steel, and increasingly—inspired by what we saw in Rioja—concrete vessels for their neutrality. The philosophy isn’t anti-oak; it’s pro-terroir. Oak should frame the vineyard’s flavours, not drown them out.
Coming Home
We visited 113 wines across 17 wineries—from La Zorra’s experimental indigenous varieties on granite soil to Artadi’s biodynamic village-focused philosophy. What struck us is how much we share: the respect for terroir, the balance between tradition and innovation, the understanding that great wine begins in the vineyard, not the cellar.
This tour reminded us that we’re not isolated Australian winemakers—we’re students of old traditions and the authors of new ones. Every winemaker we met faced different challenges but shared our obsession: expressing their patch of dirt honestly.
