About Foate's Ridge

A mere five minutes from the little township of Broke in the lower Hunter Valley lies the vineyard known as Foate's Ridge. It was established in 1991 when the land at Fordwich was bought and the vineyard set up.

They planted the first five acres in 1992 and in 1994 the first vintage Foate's Ridge Chardonnay was presented to the wine loving world. Another five acres of Chardonnay, and five acres of Verdelho, came next in 1995 and these vintages were made in 1997.

The success of these wines encouraged Tony Foate, the proprietor, to add more vines and this he did in 2000, when he planted six acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and one acre of Merlot. Then a further five acres were planted in 2001, this time with Merlot and the job was almost done.

He next added a country-style house with surrounding verandahs, near the top of the ridge, which overlooks the vineyard and has wonderful views of the valley and mountains.

The Foate's Ridge property stretches from the Wollombi Brook to the crest of the Fordwich Sill, around ninety acres in all. With about three quarters of the land being of light alluvial loam, the rest of deep red volcanic soil, it is ideal for the growing of both white and red grapes respectively.

They use the services of Steve Dodd of Briar Ridge in Pokolbin to make their wines and, under instructions from Foate's Ridge, he makes them to a consistent style to produce softly wooded wines, with distinctive fruit flavours.

The fruit is uniformly good each year and gives up delightfully subtle flavours suggestive of ripe peaches, pears and mangos.

The wines of Foate's Ridge are of a very high quality and have won many prestigious awards.

Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvignon and Verdelho are among the wonderful wines available for your delectation.