Jasper Hill Georgia's Paddock Nebbiolo 2025

Ron Laughton was a CSIRO food scientist when he and his wife Elva established Jasper Hill in 1975, taking up an unfashionable corner of Heathcote 70 miles north of Melbourne. The choice was geological: Heathcote sits on a narrow north-south band of iron-rich Cambrian-era clay and volcanic basalt, the iron-red soils that give Heathcote Shiraz its mineral signature. The Laughtons planted what became Emily's Paddock and Georgia's Paddock — vineyards named after their two daughters — and produced their first commercial vintage in 1982.

The two paddocks total roughly 26 hectares between them. Emily's Paddock leans on Shiraz and Cabernet Franc; Georgia's Paddock has 13 hectares of Shiraz alongside Riesling, Nebbiolo and Fiano experimental blocks. The estate is dry-grown and biodynamically managed, with low yields and minimal-intervention winemaking — long ferments in open-top vessels, traditional basket pressing, no acid adjustment. The result is the dense, ferrous, age-worthy Heathcote style that Jasper Hill defined for the region in the 1990s.

Daughter Emily Laughton worked alongside Ron from 2001 until his last vintage in 2014; she now runs the estate with her husband Nick and her children Ella and Nate. The wine range is short and considered: the two single-vineyard Shiraz expressions (Emily's Paddock and Georgia's Paddock) anchor the cellar list; the alternative-varietal Riesling, Nebbiolo and Fiano work as expressions of the same terroir under different fruit. Jasper Hill is widely regarded as Heathcote's reference producer.

Classic with braised beef shin, duck ragu, truffle-laced pasta, roast lamb and aged hard cheeses such as parmigiano or aged pecorino.