OX HARDY

“One of the legendary stories of Australian wine history has just been reborn. I suspect this country has not seen a new release of such pedigree, such depth of history and such sheer and effortless magnificence since the very launch of Hill of Grace itself in 1958.” Tyson Stelzer May 2019

BUY THE WINES

A UK EXCLUSIVE

We are incredibly proud to introduce the brilliant Ox Hardy range of wines to the UK. Our CEO, Tom Stopford Sackville, has known Ox for quite some time... “I am so excited that 32 years after I first met Andrew Hardy, whilst harvesting the 1989 vintage at Petaluma in the Adelaide Hills where he was chief winemaker, we now represent Ox Hardy as exclusive UK importer.”

See the wines

Hailing from the Upper Tintara Vineyard in Maclaren Vale, South Australia, this is the long-awaited culmination of Aussie wine legend Andrew “Ox” Hardy’s passion project and unquestionably one of the most exciting wine launches from Australia so far this century. Starting as a hobby around the millennium, with Andrew and his father making tiny amounts of Shiraz for the family to drink, the project has grown steadily over the past two decades until the first commercial release in 2019.

Near-perfect Wines

“Andrew is now into his fourth decade (he won’t thank me for this!) of making elite wine and yet I think that he is finally managing to craft near-perfect wines with every label he releases. Exacting standards and epic raw materials, coupled with a burning desire to encourage his vineyards to express themselves fully in the glass, make these wines which speak from the heart as well as from the elemental soils in his family vineyards... No self-respecting wine collector can declare their cellar complete without a few cases of these wines in their racks.” Matthew Jukes

Andrew “Ox” Hardy

One of Australia’s most respected winemakers, Andrew is the great-great grandson of Thomas Hardy, the ‘Father of the South Australian Wine Industry’. He has 36 years’ experience making wine in the Adelaide Hills, Clare Valley, Coonawarra and McLaren Vale working chiefly at Petaluma and has also made wine in California, Oregon and Bordeaux. His winemaking style is supremely elegant, his philosophy minimalist, allowing the quality of the vineyard and its fruit to shine through.

Upper Tintara Vineyard & Winery

In 1871 when Thomas Hardy purchased the Upper Tintara vineyard in McLaren Vale, it marked the establishment of one of Australia’s greatest winemaking dynasties. Today the picturesque 141 hectare property is still owned by the Hardy family. While the majority is native protected scrub, approximately 45 hectares remain under vines, including the Ancestor Vine Shiraz, millennium Shiraz plantings, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, among others.

ADELAIDE HILLS CHARDONNAY

Ox Hardy's Chardonnay comes from the cooler Adelaide Hills and offers crisp citrus and honeydew melon notes atop delicate mango skin, peach and passion fruit. The focus here is on bright, vivid fruit thanks to vinification in stainless steel. Winemaker Ox also uses a very small proportion of second fill barriques which suffuses all these crystalline flavours with a delightfully supple texture without imparting any obvious oak influence. White blossom, fresh fennel and tingling minerals add delightful complexity to the impressively concentrated fruit, leading to a long, mouth-watering finish.

BUY THE WINE

Upper Tintara Vineyard Shiraz

Sourced from millennium plantings on the Hardy family Vineyard, this wine is a contemporary style of McLaren Vale or - more specifically - Blewitt Springs Shiraz. Being more elevated and cooler than the Vale floor gives the wines from the Upper Tintara Vineyard high levels of natural acidity, great freshness, and bright lively colour. The use of second fill French oak barriques for maturation further enhances the primary fruit flavours and allows the characteristics of the vineyard and location to shine through. Made with a minimal intervention winemaking philosophy, this wine is not only a classic example of modern McLaren Vale Shiraz but also a great reflection of the sub-region where it’s grown.

BUY THE WINE

Slate Shiraz

The estate is also home to the original Upper Tintara Winery, which fell into disuse in 1923 following Thomas Hardy’s passing in 1912. In 2018, wine was again made in the original slate open fermenters for the first time in 95 years in the form of this Slate Shiraz. The original fermenters, made from immense slabs of locally quarried slate, were cleaned and resealed with wax in preparation for vintage. 2.3 tonnes of Shiraz from the Moreton Bay block of the family’s vineyard was shovelled into the open fermenters by hand, with the open ferment hand plunged three times a day for 9 days before the wine was pumped out and the skins dug out with bucket and shovel. Following basket pressing, the small batch of wine was matured for 18 months in the finest French oak barriques before bottling and release.

BUY THE WINE

1891 Ancestor Vines Shiraz

Planted by Andrew’s great-great grandfather Thomas Hardy in 1891, the last remaining 2.54 hectare block of ancestor vines are some of Australia’s oldest and most valuable and still produce exceptionally high-quality fruit. Referred to as Bob’s selection after Andrew’s father, cuttings from these grandfather vines have been borrowed by neighbours over time, to plant some of the most celebrated vineyards in the district. Unlike other vines of similar longevity, they still appear youthful and barely half their age to the naked eye. They also produce yields of a much younger and healthier vine. As a result of the limited amount of 1891 ancestor vines, this extraordinary wine is made in extremely small quantities.

buy the wine