Viticultural Program

Sea based fertilizers are used from nutri-tech products tailor made to suit our vines. The emulsion is undiluted and contains all the essential elements. NPK (nitrogen, potassium & phosphorus) is the base compound used for their products after which blends of essentials elements i.e. boron, manganese and calcium are added to target specific needs for soil and plant health. All plants, whether they be a grape vine, tree or a rose bush are like people, in that we need to have a balanced diet to be able to function at our optimum level. We also apply 100 tones of NASAA accredited, certified organic compost to improve soil health and ultimately to assist us to produce the highest quality of fruit possible.

The undulating topography is one of the contributing assets for drainage. This is an important factor to control the vigour of the vines. Rain water quality from a natural spring fed soak, helps ease the thirst in the early part of the season and post harvest. Although some of our paddocks are dry grown due to the presence of under ground springs, the intensity of flavours is further enhanced by fruit exposure, bunches per vine, shoot thinning and discarding any bunches that don’t complete verasion.

Cover crops of; oats, rye grass, clovers, canola and barley have been rotated over the years together with the broad acre spreading of compost.

Vines are a natural choice for this area, preserving the beauty of our valley with a bio-dynamic philosophy towards farming techniques and restoring native plant varieties along watercourses.

WINE MAKING

After hand picking, the fruit is then destemed, crushed and fermented at temperatures ranging from 20-25 degrees Celsius for up to 21 days on skins. The ferment is managed using several methods, such as “aerative pumping over” and “drain and returns.” These techniques assist in extracting the colour, flavor and tannin from the grape skins. At the completion of the first fermentation stage, the grapes are drained and transferred to barrel. We use French Barriques (225L) made up of 33% new oak and the balance being 2-4 year old barrels for secondary fermentation/ malolactic fermentation (MLF). Post MLF the wine is transferred back into barrel for an aging period of 24 months. Upon bottling we lay the wine down for a further 2-3 years allowing each vintage to mature before releasing it to the world as a 4 or 5 year old red.