Our Vineyard

Our Pipers River Vineyard

Clover Hill was founded in 1986 in Lebrina, Pipers River in north-east Tasmania with the sole purpose of producing premium, world-renowned sparkling wines.

Nestled on the outskirts of Lebrina, northeastern Tasmania, Clover Hill has a reputation for crafting wines of exceptional pedigree due to our ideal environmental conditions.

The ideal environmental conditions of Clover Hill’s Pipers River site include a cool, frost-free maritime climate, ancient volcanic soils and a sheltered, naturally sloping amphitheatre. The vines are spaced 1.1m apart, with 1.9m between rows. They are oriented to the north to maximise sunlight interception. Significant effort is poured into our canopy management to create the best micro-climate for optimal fruit parcel development. Vines are cane pruned to minimise the impact of low-bud fertility.

The Story of Our Vineyard

We selected this unique site for its ancient volcanic soils and sheltered, north-facing amphitheatre.

The 66-hectare property overlooks Bass Straight and provides an optimal vineyard environment. A cool maritime climate, with mild autumn temperatures ranging between a high of 25 and a low of 10ºC.

This results in a long ripening season, allowing superior flavour development, low sugar levels and high natural acidity: the perfect combination for premium wine in traditional sparkling varieties – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

The vineyard has deep, red volcanic ‘krasnozem’ soil (averaging 1-5m deep) and is scattered with basalt stone. The soil is free-draining with high organic matter and good water and nutrient-holding capacity.

Our fruit is picked from specific sections of the vineyard, based on variations in row orientation, altitude, soil depth and mesoclimate. This enables us to produce a wide range of premium sparkling cuvées that are sourced from the one vineyard site.

The process of crafting elegant sparkling wines in the traditional, French manner, known as méthod traditionelle (traditional method), is a highly specialised field. We are one of the few sparkling houses in Australia to exclusively utilise this method.

Varieties

Never deviating from its original concept of establishing a sparkling house to rival the wines of Champagne, Clover Hill solely produces Méthode Tradtitionnelle sparkling utilising the traditional ‘Trinity’ varietals; Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

Clover Hill Chardonnay (16.5 hectares/40.5 acres)

Chardonnay is a critical component of the Clover Hill style. Playing a distinct role in sparkling wines, Chardonnay imparts texture and flavour, and marries well with the other sparkling varietals. Rich and balanced Chardonnay is also a key component when ageing the wine and developing richness with extended time on lees. The inaugural 1991 Clover Hill wine was a Blanc de Blanc; a style of sparkling using 100% Chardonnay. Today, this style is perpetuated with our Clover Hill Blanc de Blancs Multi-Vintage and Clover Hill Degorgement Tardif Multi-Vintage that has been allowed to mature for an extended period on yeast lees.

Clover Hill Pinot Noir (8 hectares/19.5 acres)

Pinot Noir provides the rich flavours and bright texture to sparkling wines. Picked after veraison, the red berries are immediately pressed to draw out the juice with all its flavour and zesty acid with only the slight blush of colour. Contributing complex aromatics, fruit flavours and persistent natural acid, Pinot Noir is used in the traditional blend to enrich the flavour of the palate while adding a persistence to the length of the palate. This is seen in all its structure and finesse in our Clover Hill Rosé d’ Assemblage Multi-Vintage: a sparkling wine made in the traditional method where a small component of red wine is introduced at the assembly of the base wine.

Clover Hill Pinot Meunier (0.8 hectares/2 acres)

Pinot Meunier is traditionally the smallest component of the sparkling blend, but is recognised for its large impact. Lighter in colour and larger in berry size, Pinot Meunier imparts complex aromas and flavours that are more characteristic of aged wines, giving floral, fruit, spice and earthy tones to the sparkling wines. In contrast to the other varietals, Pinot Meunier is often perceived as a rapid ageing component, which further enriches the flavours it already imparts. When blended well, it complements the other principle varieties perfectly.