Blackjack Vineyards

Established: 1988

Location: Calder Highway, just south of the township of Harcourt.

Winemakers: Ian McKenzie and Ken Pollock.

Important Varietals: Shiraz, Cabernet/Shiraz/Merlot.

Personal Comments:

I have driven past this vineyard numerous times as I returned from Bendigo to Melbourne, but didn't take much notice of it. And that was basically because it was solely a vineyard until the end of 1994, when the winemakers finally received their licence to produce and sell wine.

Their first appearance at the 1994 Victorian Winemaker's Exhibition was a bit of a revelation to a lot of people. Most probably to the winemakers as their Shiraz picked up the People's Choice award. And a bloody good drop it was too. Unfortunately they were only able to produce 200 cases of this first release and you couldn't find a bottle for love nor money in Melbourne within a week of the end of the exhibition.

So far the winery only produces the straight Shiraz (the 1993 spent two years in American oak), and their 1992 Blackjack which is a blend of equal parts of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, along with 18% Merlot.

Keep an eye on this winery. It's going places and the wine will only be available in very short supply.

Further to the above, I dropped into the winery at the start of March 1996 and purchased a half dozen of each of their two releases: the 1993 Cabernet Merlot and the 1994 Shiraz, both priced at $16 per bottle cellar door, and both awarded four and a half stars by The Age Epicure staff. The Cabernet Merlot was described as having a blackberry nose, with strong blackberry flavours on the palate backed up by "grippy tannin". The Shiraz tended to pepper and capsicum on the nose and cherry, spice and liquorice on the palate. While not exactly stated in the review I would guess that the wines would benefit from 5 years in the bottle, maybe longer.

I spoke to Ken Pollock when I was there who told me that he expected this release to be sold out at cellar door by Easter. Given they had only been open on weekends for about a month at that stage, I can only surmise that the bulk of the vintage is being snapped up on mail order and by retail outlets. If a year's production can be sold this fast it's hard to say how a winery could be better situated after only two years in the marketplace.

In The Age newspaper winery section of December 3rd 1996, comes the news that Blackjack Vineyards has been successful in two classes of Le Concours des Vins du Victoria Awards with their 1994 Cabernet/Merlot taking out a bronze medal in the "Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Blends" class and their 1994 Shiraz taking out the gold in the Shiraz class. Jeni Port of The Age newspaper named the 1994 Shiraz as one of her top ten wines of the year.

March 1997 and the new releases for the winery have been announced. There are only two releasdes this year: the 1995 BlackJack (the Cabernet/Merlot blend) and the 1995 Shiraz, both now at $18.00/bottle. The blend is of 75% Cabernet and 25% Merlot and has been aged in small French and American oak. The winemakers predict a cellaring life of 5-7 years. The Shiraz has been rated as a 4-6 year prospect.

Maybe I have a tendency to rate the previous year's releases so highly that I have a feeling that this might be the year when the quality has dipped a little. Which is not to say that I would skip them. By no means. You just have to remember that not even Bradman was able to average 100 every time he went out to bat.

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Last modified: March 30, 2001.