Prince Albert Vineyard occupies 2 ha of arguably one of the best wine grape growing sites in Australia – the north facing slope of the Waurn Ponds Valley, near Geelong, Victoria. The top soil is 0.5 meters of terra rossa on top of limestone marl. It was first used for a vineyard of the same name from 1857 to 1882 and was re-established by Bruce Hyett in 1975.
Prince Albert vineyard specializes in Pinot Noir. Its good sometimes exceptional wine is sold by mail order to all over Australia and is available in some good restaurants in Melbourne, Sydney and London. New members of the mailing list are welcome and will be sent a newsletter announcing each new vintage (See the Contact Us section of the website).
We believe the very best wine is grown and made organically. Both the vineyard and winery have been officially certified organic to the Biological Farmers of Australia standards since 1998. Wine lovers are assured there are no residual synthetic chemicals present and the grapes are grown with minimal environmental effects.
All grapes used are grown on the vineyard. The vines are pruned and picked by hand. Some of the grapes are immediately lightly crushed and all are treated by pigeage in open wax-lined concrete fermenters before malolactic fermentation. The wine is aged in a mixture of new and old French oak barriques for approximately twelve months with minimum sulphur dioxide added before estate bottling.