A Must Visit Cellar Door in the Great Southern – Apricus Hill

This is one of the cellar doors that I no doubt will always recommend people to visit and I’m sure I’ll always stop into the cellar door if I’m in or around Denmark as I fell in love with this teeny tiny little cellar door in the side of the hill.

It looks like something from Hobbit Land in New Zealand – a small structure built into the side of a hill with grass on top and surrounded by trellising covered in bushes and roses helping it blend into the landscape. It had a hobbit/mediterranean/rustic feel to it for sure.

To top it off, the cellar door has a beautiful view across the vines to the faraway hills. Extremely idyllic and I definitely think they need to start offering food platters there as it would be the perfect spot to spend a relaxing afternoon.

The cellar-door..

Upon entering the cave-like cellar door, it brought back memories of visiting old-world cellar doors in Europe, especially The Bulls Blood caves in Eger. Mr. Spittoon and I loved our tasting in the Apricus cave, and seeing as there are only 5 wines in the range it made it uncomplicated and straight forward.

The thick wooden counter sitting atop wine barrels set the scene for a lovely tasting. We were surrounded by fabulous wine theme artworks and I just loved the little cages full of wine. If only I could have accidentally been locked in on of those for the day!

Despite the cellar-door being so small, I struggled to concentrate on the tasting as I couldn’t stop gawking at everything and daydreaming about the year we spent travelling through Europe’s wine regions.

The story of Apricus Hill..

So what’s the story behind Apricus? Well the property up until quite recently was actually owned by Somerset Hill Wines who we visited prior as Somerset are located down the end of the driveway.

It was Harewood Estate who bought the property. James Kellie is the owner and winemaker who runs the Harewood Estate vineyards which  cover two sites off Scotsdale Road north of Denmark town. It was only after we had left Denmark that I found out this info behind Apricus Hill, so visiting Harewood will definitely be on our must-visit list for the next visit as we just loved the Apricus wines.

The wines..

As mentioned, there are only 5 wines in the Apricus Hill range which I have to admit is quite nice. It takes out of the picture any confusion of what to try and it doesn’t wear out your palate.

The wines on offer include a single vineyard; Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot Rose & Pinot Noir.

Our two favourites were the Semillon & Chardy, check out my tasting notes below. Both these bottles sold for approximately $28 at the cellar door each.

My tasting notes..

Apricus Hill 2014 Semillon
This was an absolute cracker find on our recent Denmark trip. A stunner of a straight Semillon from this relatively new label owned by James Kellie (Harewood). On the eye it’s yellow-green with aromas of an orchard and tropical fruit salad with a side of quince and sprinkle of white pepper. I poured this a touch cold so once it warmed up a tad it had beautiful mouth-watering citrus fruit flavours followed by flavours of flint, spiced pears and a crisp length finish. I love it!

Apricus Hill 2014 Chardonnay
The brilliant, clear straw hue on the eye really doesn’t give much away. This Chardonnay was fermented in new French oak but by the look of it, you would never guess it, I expect in a few years the colour will deepen. However for the meantime, while it’s young, the motto of the story is – ‘don’t judge a wine by its appearance’! On the nose it has lovely integrated oak aromas, with nectarine, peach and cashew also present. On the palate, the cashews follow through, with underlying oak, fig and orchard fruit flavours. There’s also a definite grapefruit zing, which really brings it alive. The mouthfeel is medium, dry, clean, fresh, and mouth-puckering leaving you wanting more! The finish is fresh, clean and velvety. A good example of a single vineyard Great Southern Chardonnay from Western Australia.

Address: 540 McLeod Road, Denmark WA 6333
Opening times: 11-5 Friday through to Monday, and daily during school holidays
Wines: Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot Rose & Pinot Noir
Wine tasting cost: Free!
Food available: No
Child friendly: No playground