Centennial Vineyards is all about cool climate grape growing and winemaking. The vines ripen with lower temperatures than most Australian wine regions. Because the climate is colder, vines ripen the fruit much more slowly and evenly than in warm regions, producing balanced, aromatic fruit.
The cool Bowral vineyard at 760m in altitude (in winter snow is possible) is greatly influenced by maritime weather patterns and is suited to earlier ripening varietals such as Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Gruner Veltliner, Albarino, Riesling, Pinot Noir (4 clones), Pinot Meunier and Tempranillo. Of particular importance are the traditional Champagne varieties – Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier. These perform admirably allowing us to make a broad range of sparkling wines which have become very well respected within the industry.
Our Bridge Creek vineyard is located in the sunnier and warmer Orange region at 850m in altitude and west-facing for good afternoon sun exposure. Dry, continental weather patterns allow us to fully ripen mid-late ripening varietals. We have old vine plantings of high quality Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, exciting new plantings of the very rare Mencia, Rondinella & Corvina, and Pinot Noir (Abel clone), Shiraz and Viognier. The vineyard is farmed sustainably and is in the process of gaining organic certification.
Many of our wines are from a “single vineyard” reflecting those unique characters and balance that cannot be made from any other site. We also like to trial new varietals (and different clones of the varietal) in a quest to give our customers a wide range of wine styles to choose from, additionally, we have a larger palette to draw from when creating blends.
Sparkling wine varietals suit our climate exceptionally well. With this in mind we planted Pinot Meunier in 2005 to add complexity to sparkling blends. In addition to our successful estate-grown sparkling Brut Traditionelle we will add new sparkling styles to show what this region can achieve.
https://www.centennial.net.au/