BELLARMINE WINES

Pemberton
Western Australia

Dr Di Miller
Winemaker and Operations Manager

Winemaker, Dr Di Miller has been making the wines for Bellarmine since our first vintage in 2004, and she continues to work with the vines. Now living on the vineyard she is seeing the fruit improve each year. "Our Rieslings are a highlight to me as they have a wonderful complexity and exhibit floral and citrus notes making them different again to Great Southern or Clare Rieslings. The minerality and slight chalky acidity gives the palate a special element which is unique to Bellarmine and all the wines have a slight savouriness more typical of old world than new world wines. I am a firm believer in terroir and that's why I am so glad to be working for the Schumachers, making the wines from this special vineyard site."

"At 220 metres above sea level, we can see the sand dunes on the coast 40km away and the red gravel over limestone soils is hard ground which makes the vines struggle -  a key to high fruit and wine quality. At over ten years of age, the trunks are still very narrow showing the vines have a challenge to push their roots through the rock and make it to water. The vines are all grafted onto Schwarzmann rootstock, another unique point when compared to other vineyards in the region. This rootstock is also devigorating as well as being Phylloxera and nematode resistant. All our varieties have low crop levels of only 5.5 tonnes to the hectare which also ensures high quality fruit."

 Di has been making wine since 1999. Before this she enjoyed working in mixed and small animal practice as a veterinarian in the U.K. and Australia. Di has enjoyed many trips to Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, and the Rhone Valley in France and Ribera Del Duero, Rioja, Jerez, and Madrid in Spain. In August 2009, Di travelled to Germany where she and her partner, Jake Longwood, the Vineyard Manager at Bellarmine, toured with Dr Schumacher to the Mosel, Rheingau, Rheinhessen, Ahr, Pfalz, Baden, and Franken regions to further their knowledge of wine and of German Riesling in particular. "The wine styles differed but all good producers had great vineyards and hence great fruit. Bellarmine also has a wonderful vineyard site and even though we are so young in terms of our history, the site is producing high quality at an early stage. It is very exciting now and for Bellarmine Wines' future. The French concept of 'terroir' which describes the importance of place as the source of fruit and wine is very much a key factor in Bellarmine's story. "