Winery & Vintage Info
Passing Clouds was the name co-founders Graeme Leith and Sue Mackinnon gave to their small family owned winery when in 1974 having tirelessly hand planted their central Victorian Bendigo vineyard, were hoping for rain. Rain clouds would come, threaten and pass, and on old gold diggings and a deserted creek bed, they planted Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.
At Present, Graeme’s son Cameron is the winemaker since taking over in 2008 and is making wines that are true to the heritage and unique style of Passing Clouds whilst having a heavy focus on the vineyards to enhance terroir expression. In 2010 he completed his Masters in Wine Technology and Viticulture.
Passing Clouds still makes all of their acclaimed Bendigo reds, but now also has an emphasis on cool climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay sourced from their new home in the Macedon Ranges.
Bendigo's climate provides the perfect condition for the creation of this blend - we believe the region is better suited to Shiraz Cabernet than anywhere else. It is arguably our most well known wine, it is certainly the one we have been making the longest. It is well known for its longevity, indeed it cellars for up to 30 years, however we prefer to drink it about ten years from the vintage date. This is a blended wine and we are proud of that fact, great care was taken to create a wine greater than the sum of its parts.
The 2018 vintage was a particularly warm vintage with very little rainfall shown by the narrow harvesting window with both vineyards being machine harvested over two days. This shows in the wines more confected fruit notes. Reminiscent of 2016.
The fruit for Graeme's Shiraz Cabernet is 100% de-stemmed and hand sorted before being traditionally vinified in open stainless-steel fermenters, which are hand plunged twice a day. A portion of batches saw post ferment maceration. All batches are matured in 100% French oak for 11 months. The Cabernet and Shiraz parcels are then assessed, and the optimum blend identified. The wine was given a light egg white fining and a coarse filtration prior to bottling. Winery Notes
