About Us
***** 5 Star Rated Winery *****
James Halliday's Wine Companion 2012
Lanes End vineyard was planted in the mid 1980 to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir & a little Cabernet Franc. Situated at 570m above sea level, our principal aim is to produce extremely high quality Chardonnay & Pinot Noir in a definite Burgundian style, that being full blooded concentrated long living styles that are made for having with food.Being small in size we do not have to bow to corporate short cuts,hence wines are only released when ready.
Our Area
Lancefield is in the Macedon Ranges G.I. in Victoria. It is the coolest wine growing area in Mainland Australia, hence the perfect situation for cool climate elegant Chardonnays & Pinot Noir. Due to the cool climate the grapes take longer to ripen, thus giving a very complex profile of characters and leading to refined elegant wines. We work off very low yields to get the required concentrations - 1 tonne/acre with Pinot Noir & 2 tonnes/acre with our Chardonnay
Our Winemaker
Howard Matthews -Owner/Winemaker has now been making wines for 10 years. He firmly believes in the adage less is more. Using only wild yeast fermentation and no acid inputs, the wines made are true examples from the grapes grown in the vineyard. These are all single vineyard wines, with little or no irrigation. Success came early with the Lanes End Chardonnay 2005 winning Best Wine in the Macedon Ranges Show All our wines are made to compliment food and to age well for cellaring purposes.
Grape Varieties
Chardonnay & Pinot Noir are our two varieties. The Cab.Franc was grafted over to 2 Burgundy clones ( 114 & 115) in 2007. Even though Chardonnay can be grown in warmer areas, the profile of cool climate chardonnay is quite different to that of our friends in these warmer climates. More elegant and refined ( creeps up on you rather than smacks you in the face!!) our chardonnay has immense complexity and depth with an extremely long finish, Pinot Noir on the other hand really needs to be grown in cool climates to achieve its full potential. Our Pinot is full bodied, with dark plum, sour cherry and strawberries showing through integrated with an earthy forest floor notes held together with lovely French oak.Just made for duck, venison or game. All our wines are fermented using natural ( wild ) yeast and the Pinot is not fined or filtered. They age wonderfully over 3-10 years
Our Brands
Lanes End Pinot Noir
Lanes End Chardonnay
Lanes End Chardonnay Unoaked
Awards
Trophy Judges Choice Best Wine Mac.Ranges Wine ShowTrophy Public Choice Best Wine Mac.Ranges Wine ShowTrophy Best Chardonnay Mac.Ranges Wine ShowGold Medal National Cool Climate Wine ShowSilver Medal International Cool Climate Wine ShowGold Medal Winewise Small Vignerons Awards
