About This Vineyard
Our approach to making wine at Paxton is straightforward. We want to help the fruit express itself fully by keeping the integrity of our McLaren Vale vineyards from vine through to bottle. We aim to produce quality organic wines with a focus on flavour, complexity, structure and length that will be enjoyable on release, with food or on their own, and also respond well to cellaring.
After every effort has been made to grow the best fruit possible in our vineyards the most critical decision is choosing the right time to pick the grapes to capture the essence of the vineyard. In the winery we use minimal winemaking intervention, essentially allowing the wines to make themselves. We use the very best oak (cautiously) to enhance the fruit and add complexity to our wines. We use mainly French oak to improve the savoury properties of the wines.
We continually undertake winemaking trials to explore different flavour profiles and fruit expression, using different varieties, blends and techniques. As a relatively small, family owned winemaker we are not bound by mainstream or commercial decisions, allowing us freedom and flexibility to experiment, challenge and find the best winemaking techniques possible.
Currently the Paxton range consists of seven estate grown organic wines under the family label: Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Rose, AAA (a Shiraz, Grenache blend), Jones Block Shiraz, Quandong Farm Shiraz and the flagship wine, the Paxton EJ Shiraz. It’s likely that we will add to the range in the future, however the criteria for all Paxton wines, current or new, is that they capture the individual character and essence of the McLaren Vale vineyard from which they came.
