Echo Hill Wines

The Day, Epper and Butler families respectively bring Australian, French and NZ background and heritage to Echo Hill. They retained local vigneron Andrew Margan, with 40 years' hands-on experience in growing and making wine, as a consultant in the early stages of the venture, including the selection of varieties and design of the vineyard blocks. They have also, very sensibly, started small, with only 2ha each of chardonnay and shiraz planted on the property, and virtually unlimited room for expansion. Next, they retained one of the best contract winemakers in the region, Nick Paterson, who guides the making of the wine from the grapes on the vine to wine in the bottle. Particularly for the Chinese market, the screwcaps provide far better protection during transport, warehousing, retail sale and maturation in bottle. Exports to China. -JAMES HALLIDAY