Introducing the Prayer Garden Grenache - A New Single Vineyard from the 2021 Vintage
Prayer Garden Inspection - Red Silt to the North and West, sandy to the South
Single Vineyards
At Hayes Family Wines, we are fortunate to have access to a range of special vineyards covering the full breath of the Barossa Valley, from Williamstown in the South, to Koonunga in the North and Eden Valley to the East. Each of these vineyards are family owned by long term local growers, Schulz’s, Hoffmann’s, Fromm’s, Becker’s, Angas’.
Each vintage we take small batches, mostly 2 tonne or less, from more than 30 blocks across more than 12 vineyards. Some vineyards provide multiple varieties, others just one, but we are always on the lookout for something old that we can make new again. Sometimes these will be one off releases and other times we will look to put long term arrangements in place for ongoing supply.
Prayer Garden
One such vineyard is the Prayer Garden Vineyard owned by the Wilkshes in Ebenezer in the Northern Barossa. The family have been growing grapes for generations, but through one thing or another, only a bit over 2 acres of very old Grenache remain. This block, known as Prayer Garden due to the need to kneel to pick and prune the unusually short dry grown bush vines, has just got on with the job year after year without any fuss. Much like the Wilkshes!
Hand pruned, hand picked and dry grown, it does it tough. But with the 2020 vintage, we produced the first standalone wine from this block, and the just released 2021 is the first one made available to the public. And it is a cracking wine.
The dry grown and exposed nature of this vineyard means that yields will be variable, sometimes one barrel, other times a few can be expected. Based on the quality of the 2021, we look forward to seeing future vintages find their way into bottle.