Our featured winery for this month is Mihi Creek Wines.

There will be a selection of 4 wines at any time on our blackboard throughout June, and vigneron Andrew Close will be conducting tastings at the restaurant on selected dates including Saturday 17th June, Friday 22nd June & Saturday 30th June.

As a grand finale to the month, we will be holding a special 5 course food & wine matching lunch on Sunday 1st July from 12pm.

To view an invitation to the lunch click here

To book a table for the lunch click here, or by scroll to the bottom of this page.

About Mihi Creek:

Mihi Creek is boutique winery 22km outside of Armidale, owned and operated by our great friends Andrew & Belle Close.

Andrew and Belle purchased 180Ha of what was part of the large Mihi Station sheep and cattle property in 2001. Situated at an elevation of 1000m, the first plantings occurred in 2003 comprising of Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with the first vintage in ’06 (Sauvignon Blanc).

Since then, there have been further plantings of Sauvignon Blanc, with removal of the Cabernet sauvignon making way for more Sauvignon Blanc.

Red grapevine restaurant & bar has enjoyed a fond association with Mihi Creek since their 2007 Sauv Blanc vintage, and are thrilled to have them as our debut “Winery of the Month” for June.

About the wines:

Mihi Creek had some great success early with their Sauvignon Blanc before releasing their first Merlot in 2008.  Only one vintage later, the 2009 Merlot was selected by James Halliday to be on his list of Top 100 wines in NSW. This put Mihi Creek on a list amongst some of the great wine producers from the Hunter Valley, Mudgee, Orange & the Hastings river, a  huge honour for a relatively new winery of this size.

Since 2010 the range has greatly diversified to include Pinot Noir, Viognier, a Rose (made with Merlot fruit), a barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc (a traditional wine known in France as fume blanc).  Of particular interest in the 2010 vintage is the Shiraz Viognier.  Mihi Creek was able to lease the vineyard formally known as Glenhoya (on the southwestern edge of Armidale) which had produced some of the best shiraz fruit in the New England region so far.  This shiraz, combined with the Mihi Viognier has produced an light, but elegant red wine with subtle floral hints.

Boutique vineyards like Mihi Creek that do not make wine on the premises, can only sell wine under their license that is made from fruit grown on their land.  This creates a unique viticultural challenge, as the impact of seasonal variation (particularly in a cool climate) creates vast differences in the wine from season to season.  Andrew & Belle at Mihi exemplify this challenge, and each year produce a range of wines wholly unique & thoroughly interesting.

With further vintages of Sauvignon Blanc, Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc, & Merlot soon to be released, we can’t wait to see what else they come up with.

You can book a table for the Mihi Creek luncheon on Sunday July 1st 2012