Topper's Mountain Wines

Mark Kirby established the Toppers Mountain Vineyards between 1998 and 2002 with his family.

#SOIL AND CLIMATE The vineyard is located just north of Tingha (between Armidale & Inverell) on the spine of the Great Dividing Range in northern NSW, on the western edge of the New England tablelands at an elevation over 900m above sea level. The vineyard is perched high above the valleys of the McIntyre and Gwydir rivers, sporting rusted ochre volcanic soil. This soil, known as Krasnozems, is very free draining, allowing the vines to develop deep root systems and survive the high annual rainfall between 700-900mm.

While Topper’s Mountain is much closer to the equator at 29.5°S than most world viticulture, its altitude keeps maximum temperatures down and bestows cool nights and a strongly continental climate. Summer temperatures vary from about 10-15°C at night to 28-33°C during the day. These cool summer maximum temperatures lend the wines an elegance and fruit definition more commonly found in vines grown over 1000km above the Equator.

At the cooler end of the scale, winters are pretty chilly. The 2012 vintage maxed out at only 3 days above 30°C, with no temperatures recorded above 32°C. Incredibly, these three days occurred in October and early April, not January or February!