Bacchanalia Estate Vineyard is one of Australia’s smaller  boutique wineries producing just 700  cases of carefully crafted wines each year. 

A scale of production sufficiently small to devote  fulltime attention to detail in the vineyard and the winemaking process. 

But the key to Bacchanalia’s wine quality and success is…in a word….terroir.

Nestled in the cool climate Bacchus Marsh valley on the banks of the Werribee River, 50 kilometres west of Victoria’s capital Melbourne, Bacchanalia’s vines have flourished in the deep fertile soils.  

With limited rainfall, these black cracking clays retain sufficient moisture to finish the grapes , while slightly stressing the vines for extra concentration of flavour. 

They are trained to the unique Geneva Double Curtain trellis which allows optimum sunlight over a long growing season, cropped at less than two tonnes to the acre.

The Bacchus Marsh macro, meso and microclimates play a significant role too.

It is extremely dry, with an average of 450mm a year. Severe winter frosts shut down the vines completely over winter affording complete regeneration in expectation of the coming growing season. 

The grapes are hand picked towards the end of April or in early May...giving a long, slow ripening with huge variations in diurnal and nocturnal temperatures. 

Over summer and autumn daily temperatures can vary from an early morning 5 deg C to 35C in the afternoon..

The longer growing period and wildly fluctuating temperature range enhances the wines with optimum and desirable acidity.  

It’s this combination of deep soil, dry land viticulture, and wide temperature variation over 24 hours that produces straight varietal wines of distinction from Bacchanalia’s three grape varieties, shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and semillon.

The reds are hand picked and fermented using a blend of natural and cultured yeasts,  gently compressed in a traditional basket press and matured for twelve to eighteen months in American and French oak barrels.

The Bacchanalia wine experience is unique . Just the one varietal in each hand-produced bottle, grown, hand picked, bottled and labelled on the estate in Taverner St Bacchus Marsh.

An all too rare tasting experience among so many offerings in today’s market.