Producer
Brash Higgins is the alias of Brad Hickey, a Chicago native with a serious wanderlust, whose career as a sommelier and food writer has taken him all over the world. Having spent years talking about and selling wine, the next step in the journey was to make it, landing him in McLaren Vale to work a vintage. It was here that the wanderer finally settled, marrying local vigneron Nicole Thorpe, with whom he developed his eponymous label. Using grapes from their own organic Omensetter Vineyard as well as fruit sourced from like-minded growers, they have crafted a range of wines which allow Brash’s experimental nature and pure instinct for flavour to shine through.
Vineyard
The grapes come from Yangarra Estate’s Upper Blewitt Sands vineyard, in McLaren Vale’s Blewitt Springs subregion. This vineyard is farmed biodynamically and the forty-five-year-old Grenache and fifteen-year-old Mataro vines are planted on sandy soils over ironstone.
Winery
Both the Grenache and Mataro grapes were harvested by hand on the same day, before being co-fermented in one-ton open-top fermenters. The Mataro went in first as whole bunches and it was crushed by foot. The destemmed Grenache then followed on top. The ferment was then hand-plunged twice daily over a three-week period, before being pressed to seasoned -litre French oak barrels for twelve months’ ageing.
