2024 Update:
Once in an infrequent while (even after a decade of wine writing!) we happen across a wine, or a dream of wine that touches us profoundly and reminds us vividly why we fell in love with wine in the first place – why it’s still worth the hunt! Such has been our experience in getting to know the story, the owners, and the wines of St Ignatius Vineyard.
The tale of St Ignatius Vineyard is one of grit, surviving the vicissitudes of Australian agriculture, painstaking attention to detail, relentless commitment to producing wines of the highest quality throughout, and somehow, growing ever younger at heart all the while.
Immigrants from Argentina, Silvia and Enrique Diaz founded St Ignatius Vineyard over three decades ago. Across those years, they have developed a beautiful vineyard, an amazing winery (rich with marvelous custom machinery they designed) and a sterling brand that would be the envy of most boutique wineries. Most proprietors, should they ever make it half so far, become slowly more hardened and set into their limited ways as time goes by. Not the Diazes! For them, the world and their ideas to embrace it grow ever larger. Always trying brave and innovative new things in their quest to produce the highest possible quality of wines while keeping in concert with nature and their environment, Enrique and Silvia remain young and fresh of heart. Their warmth and incredible energy are reason enough to Visit Pyrenees, Victoria and enjoy this dream of wine for yourself!
Speaking of young and fresh, St Ignatius Vineyard has crafted and released its newest wine range concept over the last three or so years. The Unconquered range is an incredible winner. Shockingly modern in that the wines are so sleek, smooth and polished – vibrant wines of stunning clarity that glide seamlessly across the palate and sing joyfully of life. And yet familiarly old-fashioned in their clearly apparent old-school quality standards – the fruit in these wines is so rich, the winemaking so complete that while they are clean, fresh and balanced, they are also deep, powerful, and satisfying. To think a winery could pivot so spectacularly to a bold new range (complementing their existing Contemplations range) – well it’s a miracle that would only be dared by the youngest at heart.
2021 Review:
St Ignatius captures so much of the best of what makes a true “boutique winery” – endearing characters (Silvia is enchanting), an incredible story of commitment and determination (Silvia and Enrique left Argentina over 30 years ago to build this dream), and of course, amazing wines. One of the things that really sets St Ignatius’ wines apart in this day in age is the extreme quality with which they are made. The Contemplations range is truly a set of wines that will only reach their glorious peak after 5 to 10 years. Many wineries claim the like, but few prove it out in the final product so well as St Ignatius Vineyard.
Malbecs and Shiraz are a must here, but if you can find their 2016 Contemplations Cabernet Sauvignon, it is a revelation, with its soft opening that falls gloriously into perfect Cab Sav richness. This wine single handedly explains why some have referred to the Pyrenees as “Victoria’s answer to Coonawarra”.
