Silver Spoon Estate is a family owned and operated boutique cellar door / winery and vineyards focusing on the production of premium quality wines. Our Estate is named after the now abandoned Silver Spoon Mine, situated on the eastern hillside.
Apart from making our wines at the Estate, we also sell our grapes to other winemakers throughout Heathcote and Victoria.
The Property:
The 250 acre property has 51 acres under vine grown on the north, south, east and west facing slopes of the Mount Camel ridge-line, 17 kilometres north of the Heathcote township. Vine plantings date back to the year 2000 and have developed without irrigation, possibly due to the deep rocky Cambrian soils that preserve moisture and encourage deep root penetration.
Silver Spoon Estate operates an ‘off-grid’ winery and cellar door powered by solar panels and lithium iron batteries. We produce enough solar energy to run our destemmer, pumps, basket press, high pressure water hose and other equipment, with a back-up generator on standby if ever required. The solar setup also supplies 240 volt power to our residence on site.
The Vines:
We specialise in growing Rhone Valley and Spanish grape varieties on the Estate. Shiraz is the predominate variety, forming 80% of plantings. The remainder is planted to Viognier, Grenache, Mourvedre and Tempranillo. Plantings are segregated into 4 vineyards situated on the east and west sides of the Mount Camel range. The hilltop vineyard is situated at 320 metres altitude, one of the highest vineyards in the region.
The vineyards rely on the deep Cambrian soils for moisture retention through the dry Summer months. Over the years their roots have penetrated deep into the rocky hillside, tapping into a natural source of water.
Approximately 50% of the harvested grapes are sold to other winemakers in Heathcote and throughout Victoria, with the remainder retained for production in the winery. Our grapes are highly sought-after and form the basis of a number of medal winning wines.
We produce our wines using traditional techniques of hand picking, hand pruning and low chemical intervention within the vineyards and winery. Grapes are processed in small batches during fermentation and aging on-site in the winery, and then blended just prior to bottling.
Tracie Young – General Manager:
Tracie has a background in business administration, sales, marketing and social media. She is responsible for the day-to-day running of the business, supervising vineyard operations and vintage logistics.
Peter Young – The Winemaker:
Peter became familiar with vineyards when working as a geologist in the 1970’s in the Hunter Valley and completed the Master of Wine Technology and Viticulture degree at Melbourne University in 2012. With Peter’s transitioning from the corporate world to a more full-time winemaker recently, he is enjoying his life-long passion.
