Our cellar door
is open 7 days
from 10.00am until 4.00pm
closed
Good Friday and Christmas Day

Careful land and water management
is nothing new to Mitchell Wines. Andrew Mitchell has long considered dry–grown to have better developed characteristics in the final wine.
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Our Vineyards

The grapes for Mitchell Wines come from the company’s four local vineyards. Varieties planted are Riesling, Semillon, Shiraz, Merlot, Grenache and Cabernet. Vine age ranges from as little as five to over fifty five years. Soils are red–brown loam and clay over limestone. The altitude of these vineyards is between 300 and 400 metres and the average rainfall in the vicinity of 600mm, falling mostly in the winter (May to September).

The largest vineyard is located at Watervale, several kilometres south of the winery. This vineyard was acquired in 1985 and is planted with 50 year old dry grown Grenache, Shiraz and Riesling grapes. Set on the exposed eastern slopes of undulating hills, with long rows of vines, this can be a very bleak place in the middle of winter at pruning time and has led to it becoming known among the vineyard workers as Alcatraz, a place to do penance in the cold, wind and rain of a Clare winter. Alcatraz is particularly suited to the Riesling variety.

The other major vineyard is at the winery site at Sevenhill. Planted entirely to red grapes: Cabernet, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, this is the source vineyard for the Mitchell Cabernet. Shortly after the Watervale vineyard was acquired in 1984 the Mitchells purchased a 130 acre farm at Auburn, this is being developed with vines and olives. In addition, selected growers are contracted to supply particular parcels of grapes to blend with the home grown fruit.