Head Wines
Alex Head calls the Barossa Valley home but he will always feel equally at home in France’s Northern Rhone Valley. His affinity with Old World wines led him to Côte Rotie, or roasted slope, where the story is that in the Middle Ages one 'Count Maugiron' owned the steeply terraced hills of Côte Rotie. The Count had two daughters, one a blonde and the other a brunette and in time he realised that wine from the Southern slope of the Cote showed colour and character of his blonde daughter, while the Northern his brunette daughter. When Count Maugiron finally retired he passed on the two Côtes to his daughters and to this day, they are still referred to as the ' Côte Blonde' and 'Côte Brune'.
Inspired, Alex set out to find vineyard sites for Head Wines where, similar to Côte Rotie, the soils produce contrasting styles of Shiraz resulting in The Blonde, a Shiraz grown on sandy loam in Stonewell and The Brunette, from a high elevation vineyard in Moppa. The rest of the portfolio showcases single site Rhone varietals with the hallmarks of elegance, freshness, balance and purity of fruit.
Read More