The Shays Flat vineyard is in the Landsborough – Elmhurst Valley on the Western slopes of the Pyrenees Ranges. This very picturesque quintessentially Australian valley has seen nearly 1,000 hectares of vines planted since the planting boom of the mid-1900’s. Southcorp’s Glen Lofty vineyard was the pioneer site in 1995. Other major vineyards include Glen Kara Estate and the Malakoff Gap. Robert and Isabella Burns have used Davidson Viticulture as consultants to plan and develop Shays Flat as a leading practice vineyard. After 18 months of planning and preparation the first 18.5 hectares (33,000 odd vines) were planted in 1999. The vines are planted in six NE facing blocks – 3 blocks of Shiraz (12 hectares), 1 block Cabernet Sauvignon (3.5 hectares), 1 block of Merlot (1 hectares) and 1 block of Sangiovese (2 hectares).
The site terroir is suitable to achieve Robert and Isabella’s objective of producing low yielding premium quality grapes. The soil structure comprises a thin loam top soil over a red-orange duplex clay heavily dispersed with quartz particles. The quartz enhances the soil structure by providing favourable water holding and draining properties. The vine rows transverse gently rising ridges at an altitude of 300-330m affording great views of the rolling Pyrenees range and contradicting the connotation of Shays Flat being flat. Situated at the end of the Great Dividing Range, the site appears slightly warmer than most of the Pyrenees and Grampian vineyards.
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Tel: (03) 9826 6190 482 Shays Flat
Malakoff Road
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