St Hallett
Established by the Lindner family in 1944, St Hallett have established themselves as Masters of Barossa Shiraz.
From the beginning, St Hallett has understood the importance of saving old vines and focusing on varieties that thrive in the Barossa region – particularly, this region’s much applauded Shiraz.
St Hallett
St Hallett continues the legacy of crafting exceptional wines from a tapestry of vineyards throughout the Barossa and Eden Valley, showcasing the geological, geographical and climatic diversity of the region.
Viticulture
The Barossa has a diverse topography of valleys and slopes with elevations ranging from 130 metres in the southern Barossa Valley, through to 550 metres on the cool elevated ridges of the Eden Valley.
With ancient landscapes dating back 200 million years, the Barossa is covered by a patchwork of soil types ranging from deep red and brown clay loams on the valley floor, through to shallow and rocky sandy loams on the eastern and western ridges.
The team at St Hallet work under a specific site premise, sourcing grapes from particualr sites throughout the region to enable the very best expressions of this part of the world to be created, in bottle. Keeping the parcels separate from one another allows the indivdual sites to shine.
Vinification
The St Hallett fascination with Shiraz grape variety goes back to the 1960’s when the company was producing a premium range of fortified wines, the most well known was the St Hallett Liqueur Shiraz Port, produced from the now 106 year old Old Block Shiraz Vineyard.
St Hallett very quickly recognised the value of “Old Vine” Shiraz and the infinite variations in flavour that arise from the highly varied terroir offerings of the Barossa landscape and geology. The St Hallett grower base covers most of the parishes the Barossa has to offer and over the last 30 years St Hallett has committed to batch processing. Batch processing is where we keep each individual vineyard separate during the vinification process, from crushing the fruit - ferment - and barrel ageing.
Over the years we learnt what is the best approach to handling the differing Shiraz offerings from the varied terroir. These differing approaches include timing of picking / ferment time and temperatures / oak type / and length of time in oak prior.
Meet the winemaker
Helen McCarthy
English-born Helen moved to Australia in 1988. In 1997 she began studying winemaking at the University of Adelaide before acquiring substantial experience working with some of the Barossa’s most well-known names. Helen’s work moved to the Clare Valley in 2003 where she was awarded the Gourmet Traveller Kemeny’s Medal for Young Winemaker of the Year and the People’s Choice Wine Society Young Winemaker of the year. At the same time, she won a scholarship to the Len Evans Tutorial, was part of the ‘Wine Industry Future Leaders Program’ and commenced judging at various wine shows.
Helen returned to the Barossa in 2011 where she won The Wine Society Young Winemaker of the Year, and completed an MBA in Sustainable Business. In 2015 Helen became the custodian of the icon Mountadam Vineyards, enlivening her passion for the Eden Valley. This, alongside her unwavering passion for the wider Barossa is something that Helen demonstrates now every day at St.Hallett, since joining in 2019.
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Brand Downloads
Global Vintage Release Programme, Pre Release Tasting Booklet 2021