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INVENIENDA

LATIN – TO BE DISCOVERED

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.

It offers an incredibly focused and modern style… this is a benchmark Barossa Shiraz to enjoy over the next two decades.
ANGUS HUGHSON, VINOUS

The 2020 Invenienda release received a score of 97 points by Angus Hughson from wine publication Vinous.

SECURE AN ALLOCATION

FOR THE TRUE COLLECTOR

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.

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YEARS IN THE MAKING

A LABOUR OF LOVE

“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 15 years.”
– Michael Twelftree, Proprietor

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.

our second release

2021 Tasting notes

COLOUR: Deep rich purple in colour with a slight red hue.
AROMA: An explosive bouquet of strawberry, rhubarb, clove, blood plum, mint, herb, cut flower, rosemary and leather. There is a lot going on here and every time you lift the wine to your nose, new aromas slowly emerge.
PALATE: The palate starts out dense and flavour filled, with blackcurrant, soy, tapenade, liquorice and mocha. Every element here works in perfect harmony which makes the fruit disappear across the palate effortlessly and seamlessly, the bright acidity drives the dense fruit profile

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Holy Grail Vineyard

The Clos

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.

‘The Clos’ (pronounced KLOH), was the final block to be planted at Holy Grail Vineyard in 2017 by our viticulture team. The block has been planted with two specific Shiraz clones. First, the ‘Prouse’ clone from Eden Valley and the second was the famous ‘Kalimna 3C’ clone from the Barossa floor. The block is situated on a relatively steep slope, where the vines are planted across the hill. This helps the team manage erosion control, and also allow the ease of spraying, pruning and picking!

trellis system

Sur Echalas

The Invenienda Shiraz is sourced only from ‘The Clos’ block. The ‘Sur échalas’ trellis style that block is planted in all must be managed by hand. From bud-burst, the vines are individually tied to a 1.8-metre stake, three times throughout the Spring/Summer growing season until finally, the vines are joined together to the shape of a love heart at the top (pictured).

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 of fruit on a 1.5m to 1.8m shoot, allowing a large solar panel of leaves for the bunch to achieve perfect maturity slowly and effortlessly (think of them like a sun dial!).

This form of propagation is the ancient trellis system used in France’s venerated Northern Rhône Valley, where Syrah vines are planted and trained to a stake. ‘Sur échalas’ translates in English means ‘on a stake or pole’. 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 Block’ has 5,807 vines across 3.6 acres.

Winemaking

Hand Crafted

‘The Clos’ is the last block to be picked at the Holy Grail vineyard 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.

viticultural techniques

planting & process

Learn more about the viticultural techniques by MT and Travis Coombe, who were both pivotal to the development and success of the planting of our Clos block.