INVENIENDA - Two Hands Wines

Home
Our Wines
INVENIENDA

Sur Echalas Seppeltsfield Barossa Valley Shiraz

‘Invenienda’ is inspired by the quest to plant our Holy Grail vineyard. The countless hours of research and exploration into the site and ensuing precision viticultural techniques has indeed been a journey of discovery.

Our aim is to create a new benchmark for Australian wine that easily sits amongst the great wines of the world.

SECURE INVENIENDA

We’re delighted to share the second release of our incomparable singular site wine Two Hands Invenienda Sur Echalas Barossa Valley Shiraz from the 2021 vintage. Produced and sold as a trio, presented in a hand-crafted, glass-fronted bamboo box for AU$1000 (per 3 pack). We invite you to contact us to be one of the few to secure an allocation of this limited wonderful new cuvée from the Two Hands Wines stable.

ENQUIRE TO PURCHASE REGISTER INTEREST

“In September 2008, I acquired what I believed to be the best unplanted land in the Barossa Valley. For the next 9 years, I carefully planned every detail, to ensure I got the most of this special land when planted. I walked the land, month after month, year after year, and felt a small slice of the vineyard, with a lovely undulating slope to the South East was the best piece. Multiple soil reports and analysis confirmed my hunch, so I chose to keep it aside, to plant a truly exceptional vineyard, we now call ‘The Clos’, and to produce a new benchmark wine for Barossa Valley and in turn Australia. I am thrilled to present our ‘Invenienda’, it has been a total labour of love for the past 14 years.”

COMPOSITION AND DESIGN

Invenienda

We’ve chosen a special bottle produced by Saverglass called 1855, as it is the shape of the bottles used for the 1855 Bordeaux classification. The wine is sealed with a Diam 30 cork, a closure that will last for 30 years. The labels have 5 variations featuring a charcoal hand-drawn image of each of our beloved family of Scottish Highland cattle that guard and protect our ‘Clos’ and Holy Grail vineyard. The original of these drawings can be found adorning the walls of our Cellar Door, signed by esteemed Adelaide artist and long-time friend of Two Hands Dan Tomkins. The trio of bottles are housed in a bamboo timber box that has a glass-fronted lid and modelled on a cigar humidor to create the perfect environment as the wine ages in the cellar.

Sur Echalas

The Holy Grail is our estate vineyard situated amongst the palm tree lined ‘Avenue of Hopes & Dreams’ in the sub-region of Seppeltsfield in the Barossa Valley. This wine comes from a block of Shiraz planted Sur Echalas. This form of propagation the ancient trellis system used in France’s venerated Northern Rhône Valley region, where Syrah vines are planted and trained to a stake. ‘Sur Echalas’ translates in English to ‘on a stake or pole’.

Our Holy Grail Vineyard

The Clos Block

‘The Clos’ pays homage to the ancient tradition of Sur Echalas plantings, the vines are planted 2 metres x 1.25 metres apart, which increased the vine density compared to a convention vineyard by 2.5 times. The Clos has 5,807 vines across 3.6 acres.

Planted in 2017 by our Viticultural Manager, Travis Coombe and his team, the block has two specific Shiraz clones. First, the ‘Prouse’ clone from Eden Valley and the second was the famous ‘Kalimna 3C’ clone from the Barossa floor. Situated on a relatively steep slope, the vines are planted across the hill, to help with erosion control, allow ease of spraying and it is easier to prune.

The échalas style must be managed by hand. From bud-burst, the vines are tied to the 1.8-metre stake, three times throughout the growing season until finally, the vines are joined together to the shape of a love heart. The shoots are then thinned and the crop is thinned to one bunch per shoot. Once the vine architecture is developed we have one bunch on a 1.5m to 1.8m shoot, allowing a large solar panel of leave for the bunch to achieve perfect maturity slowly and effortlessly.

Winemaking

Hand Crafted

‘The Clos’ is the last block to be picked at Holy Grail each season. The bunches are handpicked into small 20kg crates and placed in our refrigerated container for one day, to allow the fruit to cool down and allow the team to control the start of fermentation.

Our Head Winemaker Richard Langford had a number small timber fermenters custom-crafted for Invenienda, to ensure a slow fermentation over 10 to 14 days. Once ferment is nearing completion, the skins are submerged with barrel heads and then sealed for a further 10 weeks, so the must can macerate and intensify the flavour. After this long process, Richard and his team drains the free-run juice from the fermenters and the skins are pressed.

The wine is then aged in fine-grained French oak sur lees for 16 months before bottling.

The quality of fruit in the vineyard and care and attention to detail throughout the winemaking process means that the finished wine does not require fining and or filtering.