Kiola Vineyard was first planted in 1996 by viticultural consultant Mark Sims and his wife Luisa. The vineyard was planted exclusively to Shiraz and is situated in the heart of the breeding grounds of the endangered ‘Superb Parrot’, on the farming property “Kiola” belonging to Luisa’s parents Ian and Bev Curlewis.

Graduating from Charles Sturt University Wagga in 1983, Mark has extensive experience including managing vineyards in Germany before moving to back to Australia to manage vineyards in the Hunter Valley. Mark later moved to the ‘Rosemount Estate’ Denman vineyard and then the ‘Richmond Grove’ vineyards in Cowra in 1994.

For the last ten years, the family has been producing small parcels of premium Shiraz. The vintage variations and winemaking experimentation has enable Kiola to produce a diverse range of Shiraz over the past few years.

The current vintages are the 2005 and 2006.

“Our focus on Shiraz enables us to offer a couple of vintages of the same variety from the same vineyard to our customers,” explained Mark. “It gives them a chance to look at the subtle difference in vintage conditions which are expressed in the wines.”

Both wines were fermented in two tonne open fermenters with hand plunging of the caps. 11 months maturation followed in a mix of new and older American oak barriques.

“We have essentially maintained our winemaking procedures from year to year to ensure that it is the fruit that delivers the vintage variation”, commented Mark. “We work very closely with our winemaker, Roger Harris, to develop the potential of this relatively new wine growing region”.