Established in 1978 by Ron and Elva Laughton, Jasper Hill is a small family in the hills of Heathcote. The couple moved to Heathcote in 1980 with their two daughters to create a new life in the country. With the couple’s background in chemistry food, and millinery, the pair entered the wine scene with their first vintage in 1982.

The two vineyard sites, Georgia’s Paddock and Emily’s Paddock, are named after the couple’s daughters. They were planted in 1975 and reflect the complex geology of Heathcote while being situated on ancient 650-million-year-old soils from the Cambrian era. Emily’s paddock faces east while Georgia’s paddock faces predominately west and are both unirrigated and yield small quantities of organic fruit.

After the plantings of Georgia’s and Emily’s paddock, the team at Jasper Hill followed up with Shiraz plantings in 1987, with Nebbiolo Grenache and Viognier in 1991 to complete the vineyards. Each vine has its dormant and growing seasons and are cane pruned by hand with careful attention to bud positioning and vine health.

The business is now in the hands of one of the vineyards’ namesakes, Emily Mc Nally, and her husband Nick Mc Nally. They continue the operations with the same enthusiasm as Emily’s parents and strive to maintain the same levels of quality from years prior.

The many awards earned by this winery are testament to the effort put in by the team to create unique and sustainable wines. Some of these awards include being included in James Suckling’s Top 100 Wines of Australia and Top 100 Wines of the world as well as Hallidays Top 100 Wines of Australia. It was also included as a Top Winery of Australia by the Real Review.

Releasing six wines a year, all wines are aged in French and Austrian oak for twelve months to develop complexity. All wines are also cross flow filtered prior to bottling and have minimal sulphur added throughout the winemaking process.

Situated just an hour and half north of Melbourne in central Victoria, Jasper Wines invites visitors to taste their new wines at the cellar door on Saturday 30th August and Sunday 31st August before they release at the start of September.