Winery & Vintage Info
The Maxwell winery is located on the south-facing slope of a solid limestone hill in the heart of McLaren Vale. This limestone provides excellent drainage, creating an environment perfect for shiraz vineyards of the highest quality. The shiraz for Silver Hammer is sourced from numerous parcels on the Maxwell estate, offering a consistency of style and quality year on year.
McLaren Vale’s 2022 vintage will be recorded as one of the great years for the region, and though volume was down, flavours, colour and structure were all brilliant. The region was in excellent balance, especially compared to Eastern Australia which suffered at the hands of La Nina with excessive rainfall & flooding. After a predictably wet Winter, we progressed through a mild Spring with warm, sunny periods. At the end of November, we had a cold snap with rain & winds gusting over 1OOkm per hour, which removed some emerging vine flowers, reducing the available number of bunches. Summer was excellent with warm, dry conditions & no 40°C days, and was followed by a perfect, warm Autumn, with harvesting starting a little later compared to recent years.
