What motivated you to leave your city life and begin your new life as winemakers? Has life changed for the better?

As a family with 3 young children (8,6,4) Allison and I wanted to give our children the chance of growing up in the country. We had no intention of making wine, we were only going to grow great quality fruit. At first, we started to sell our grapes to Rockford. After meeting our neighbour Chris Ringland, it took him 2 years to talk us into making a wine. We were not going to sell this wine, it was just for family and friends to drink. That was in 1998. We have made wine ever since. In our first vintage we made 30 dozen wines, now we make about 1800 dozen. Yes, life is better.

Tell us about the Barossa Valley, what makes the region so special? What drew you here in the first place? 

We moved to the Barossa for a lifestyle. But, it is one of the 10 great wine regions of the world, and Australia’s premier wine region. Climate, soil and location make it special. It is only 60 minutes to Adelaide. The wine community as a whole is very supportive and helpful. 

Do you meet with other Barossa producers and winemakers and exchange views/experiences? Do you swap wines? 

Yes, we regularly meet with Chris Ringland and others. Especially the other members of the Artisans of Barossa. In talking with others, you always exchange ideas, views and experiences. We swap and buy wines from many producers.

The soils of the area are known to be unique. Can you tell us about the soils at your vineyard and how they influence the wines? 

The soil in our region of the Barossa Ranges is yellow podzolic. It is a very lean soil containing quartz with a clay layer below. We do not have mains water, but, we do have a small dam. From this we try to give the vines a very small drink if we can. On years like 2019, we had no dam water so the vines had a very hard year.

Is there a particular block that you feel stands out above the rest? If so, what makes it superior? 

There is not one part of our vineyard that is any better than the rest. We were just very lucky to buy one of Australia’s great vineyards.

"When you are regularly in touch with and speak to people/winemakers of the calibre of Pete Schell and Chris Ringland, you would have to be a fool not to be influenced."

How have Pete Schell and Chris Ringland influenced you? Does Chris still consult on your winemaking? 

Yes Chris still does some consulting for us. When you are regularly in touch with and speak to people/winemakers of the calibre of these two you would have to be a fool not to be influenced. They have so much passion and are both gifted but also technically astute winemakers. You learn that balance is the key, it creates silkiness. Wines should have no jagged edges, they should be able to be consumed young but should also be able to be aged.

You have an ability to craft a real powerful style of Shiraz. Was this the style you always loved (passion for Italian Amarone perhaps?) or is it a product of the old vines and the terroir? 

90% of a wine is made in the vineyard. We endeavour to work with our fruit and make wines with minimal intervention.

The idea of making an Amarone style wine initially came from discussions around our vineyard. Due to our location we have a longer and slower ripening period than the Barossa Valley floor. This is simply due to the cooling effect of our elevation. This allows us to let our fruit hang on the vine longer. If you want, a natural drying style. From this discussion/idea we came up with the idea of picking the fruit a little earlier and rack drying them to achieve a more Amarone type characteristic. This was in 2002, we have been doing it ever since.

Your Gregor Shiraz is incredibly powerful and loved by many of our customers. What prompted the decision to create an Amarone style Shiraz? Did you experiment a lot? 

No experimentation... Just a love and passion to make great wine.

As well as the many positives relating to the quality of the old vine fruit, are there any challenges to working with such ancient vines? 

 No. Working with old vines is a bit like working with your grandfather. If you work them too hard (over crop them) they will produce rubbish fruit and probably die. Let them produce as much fruit as they like and you will reap the rewards.

We have read a report of Phylloxera being found in the Yarra Valley and wrote about it in our weekly magazine. Is this a concern? 

Phylloxera is a primary concern of all in the wine industry. Our wonderful country Australia with its vast distances between vineyard areas gives us the ability to contain the spread. This will only be effective if we are diligent in educating and making people aware of their responsibilities to stop the spread of phylloxera. It will spread, it will spread because big wineries cut costs. They move machinery all around Australia, an accident will happen as some stage, but it will not have an effect in our area in my lifetime. Hopefully by then we will have ways to contain it or destroy it.

We know that it’s a very busy time for you at the moment. How is the harvest going? Anything of particular note from the current vintage? 

28/3/19. We will most likely pick our shiraz next week. It has been a dry winter and a very dry spring and summer. Quality is sensational, yields will be anything from 40% to 60% down.

Do you have a personal favourite out of your wines? If so, what makes it a favourite? 

No. It is a bit like asking if we have a favourite child. Yes, the one I am drinking now!!

Tell us about life as a family run winery, the joys and the difficulties (if any!) 

There are joys and difficulties in any family run business. The great joy of life here when our children were home was always being around when they were here. The other great joy is that I spend every day with my wonderful wife.

Would you like to pass any message to our world-wide customers? 

Buy more Hobbs wines (of course!!). We will always make the best wine we can, if we do not think it is good enough to put our name on the bottle, it won’t happen. Last point - keep an eye on the 2018 wines. At the point of production and up until now they are the best wines we have made. They still have at least 12 months in barrel to go, but look stunning.

Hobbs Gregor Shiraz 2004

95 Points - Jay Miller (erobertparker.com)

"The 2004 Shiraz “Gregor” was sourced from a younger vineyard and includes some partially dried fruit in the style of Amarone. The wine spent 2 years in new French oak hogsheads. It is more deeply colored than its sibling and has a liqueur/port-like character to its aromas and flavors. Powerful, rich, and layered."

Was £188.00 per case of 6 IB

NOW £155.00 per case of 6 IB

Nearest Competitor
Corkr Fine Wines @ ​£413.00

Hobbs Gregor Shiraz 2005

96 Points - Jay Miller (erobertparker.com)

"The 2005 Gregor Shiraz was made from grapes dried on racks prior to crushing and fermentation in the style of Amarone. More deeply colored than its siblings, it has a liqueur, port-like character to its aromas and flavors. Large in scale and richly fruity, it conceals enough ripe tannin to evolve for 6-8 years. Drink this singular effort from 2015 to 2035."

Was £195.00 per case of 6 IB

NOW £170.00 per case of 6 IB

Nearest Competitor
Cru @ ​£236.00

Hobbs Gregor Shiraz 2006

Jay Miller (erobertparker.com) 

"The 2006 Gregor Shiraz is made from fruit dried on trays in the style of Amarone. More deeply colored than the above two wines, it has a liqueur, Port-like character to its aromas and flavors although it is dry. Notes of licorice and chocolate as well as assorted black fruits make an appearance on the palate. Layered, balanced, and long, this unique effort will continue to blossom with several more years of cellaring and offer a drinking window extending from 2013 to 2026. "

£144.00 per case of 6 IB

NOW £134.50 per case of 6 IB

Nearest Competitor
Cru @ ​£182.00

Hobbs Shiraz Viognier 2006

Handpicked from the Hobbs Estate vineyard at optimal sugar, tannin and acid ripeness. The grapes were co-fermented in small batches, hand plunged and monitored closely to ensure perfect balance and integration. Once fermentation was finished, the wine was pressed off the skins into new French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation and maturation. 

Wine Spectator "Polished, generous and distinctly peppery, especially up front and on the long, expressive finish. In between, the cherry and guava flavors come to the fore, playing against fine tannins. This has style and ageability."

£128.95 per case of 6 IB

NOW £99.95 per case of 6 IB

Nearest Competitor
Cru @ ​£155.00

We are Australian specialists with a modest amount of Rosé, primarily from Margaret River, and despite offering the incredible 96 point single vineyard Nebbiolo Rosé from Nocturne or the Estate and Harmony Rosés from Deep Woods, between them scooping up 5 top medals, we have been repeatedly asked to increase our range of Provence Rosé. Not content with just the cult wine, Made In Provence by Domaine St Lucie or (MIP) which we must say, after a recent tasting on one of the first days that almost resembled spring, was drinking fantastically. It is a typical trait of us Brits that as soon as we glimpse our shadow cast on the ground from a fleetingly brief ray of sunshine, we get the shorts on, open the parasol and crack open the pink whilst browning like sausages! And why not? We must enjoy it while it’s here as it probably won’t be around for long, so on one of the recent gloriously spring like days, we opened a bottle of MIP and and sat down to enjoy. There is no denying the quality of Rosé that comes from Provence but in the past,  we have found that many have a tendency towards being overtly neutral, that if tasted blind, would be almost indistinguishable from a fairly neutral white wine with very little fruit. The MIP however is most definitely a rosé, with floral characters of rose petal and blossom with delicate red berry fruits. So, as the summer approaches, we have decided to answer the calls and increase our selection from Provence rosé with the addition of Château Miraval, which has been specifically requested on a dozen or so occasions.

The Miraval estate is set in an amphitheatre surrounded by ancient woodlands, vineyards and 26 acres of olive groves from which the family also produce L’Huile d’Olive extra virgin, organic olive oil. It is probably not common knowledge that we have stocked for some time, two single vintage olive oils from Capezzana and Fontodi. These have been shipped to customers all over Europe, even one to Australia. We have also had almost 300 visitors a month to the website, just from the mention of Capezanna Olive Oil on a food bloggers website. In the last 6 months, we have sold almost twice as much Olive Oil as we have Riesling which is incredible if not rather sad for the great, grape that is Riesling. We are huge fans of Riesling which is interesting as it supports the point that many Brits still misunderstand this grape variety but are clearly refining their palates when it comes to Olive Oil! It is great to see that people are taking olive oil seriously as, like wine, it is a product that can show great complexity in flavour, regional and varietal diversity, be single vintage, single variety, blended and can be matched to and accompany a variety of dishes. Joining  Capezzana and Fontodi to our range of premium olive oils will be the ”L’Huile d’Olive, described by the family as suave, with notes of almond, hazelnut and artichoke barigoule.” The taste is pungent and spicy, the mouth is peppery and has aromas of freshly cut grass. The finish is long, sweet and spicy. The estate’s olive oil is bottled in black ceramic and until recently had only been sold in specialist French shops and through the Perrin’s website.