Our new look celebrates our unique terroir, the rare varietals that thrive here, and the quiet confidence that comes from forging our own way.
We’re not doing the classics. We’re not from a known wine region. And we’re certainly not taking the easy road. But then again, we’re not about easy. We’re about passion, integrity and working hard to create, share and celebrate that which we love.
Our vision is to make the best wine, from the best fruit, best suited to our site.
Since day one at Toppers Mountain, we’ve experimented with alternative wine varieties that best suit the high altitude, cool climate and rich, red volcanic ash soils. “It’s been a long search, but one that’s shown the importance of variety selection and site to wine quality,” Mark said.
Emerging, rare and alternative varieties have been a mainstay of Topper’s Mountain since we first planted the vines in 2000. Initially, we planted 22 varieties including 15 varieties in the “Fruit Salad” block, a mixed planting to trial varieties potentially suitability to the site, climate, soil and topography. Today, we have 18 varieties across our 10 hectare vineyard, with the now-famous ‘Fruit Salad’ block constantly guiding which varieties thrive in the winery’s distinct lineup.
The current releases in the Finder range include a Gewurztraminer, a Nebbiolo Extra Brut Rosé, a Manseng, and a Touriga & Tintas red blend.
“Our Nebbiolo Extra Brut Rose sparkling was a happy accident from the 2021 vintage. A forecast of heavy rain in late March put us in a pickle – we could roll the dice and see if the nebbiolo could ride out the weather, or we could pick early to save as much fruit as possible and try our hand at making a sparkling wine,” Mark said.
“We chose the sparkling wine route and made our first traditional method sparkling wine using Nebbiolo, and it was so enticing that we have kept it a staple in the portfolio ever since!”
Our vineyard practices on the property outside Tingha, NSW focus on minimal impact, with management practices including sheep grazing amongst the vines in cooler months, slashing of under vine and inter-row vegetation promoting soil and vine health. Pesticides have not been used on the site since 2002, with natural methods like the self-seeding of diverse inter-row vegetation providing pollen to allow breeding of ample local predators to prevent pests damaging vines and the crop.
If you’re new, we can’t wait to share our wines and stories with you. If you’re Topper’s Mountain veteran, we can’t wait to have you back to share a few yarns and a few drops.
