The Land
With geology comes wine, with soil comes flavour and with climate comes quality. McLaren Vale is one of the most geologically diverse regions in the world with more than 40 unique geologies present which vary in age from 15,000 years to over 550 million years.
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The geological terroir of Miracle Hill provides the uniqueness and specialness of its wines, also supported by a Mediterranean climate with a twist that offers a particular viticultural advantage not known by many of its regional neighbours: diurnal temperature variation.
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The gully winds, specific to the foothills site, result in significant temperature variation during the course of a day. In grapes, this variation has the effect of increasing sugar content with sunlight exposure while the sudden drop in temperature at night preserves the balance of natural acids in the grape.
The formation of the land and its foothills location brings a balance of gully winds and sea breezes to cool and dry the vines, thus tempering the ripening process that contributes to the fruit quality and composition. The flow of the gully winds through the vineyard also reduces disease risk and therefore requires fewer spraying interventions.
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Another key feature of Miracle Hill is in the reintroduction of biodiversity to counteract the single crop agricultural practice in the region. In addition to plantings of cabernet and sangiovese, the current custodians value diversity for habitat conservation, symbiosis with nature, pest and soil management and the aesthetic it brings.
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Revegetation along the water course and reintroduction of original ecology has transformed the land to an earlier era of mosaic: a mix of vineyard and grazing interspersed with native vegetation. The habitat options now have appeal to the widest range of locally endemic species.