Our Vineyards

We manage our estate vineyards using organic farming principles, the vines are picked and pruned by hand and disturbing the soil and environment is kept to a minimum.

Producing our wines in a sustainable way is important to us.

Vines

We live in a warm climate (which seems to be getting warmer!). Fortunately Grenache and Graciano are natives of Spain and love a warm climate and McLaren Vale is perfect for them to thrive.

Shiraz loves the sun too and the Langhorne Creek blocks (which produce our Reserve Shiraz) are well located, with a higher clay content in the soil which is important for water holding and quality. The Shiraz blocks and the Cabernet blocks (which provide the grapes for our Reserve Cabernet) are situated in the area of the original plantings at Langhorne Creek known as the flood plain. This is a great example of man working with nature without imposing major changes on the natural environment.

All of our vineyards are planted with ungrafted vines. We believe it is the best way to grow, as nature intended, without the interference of a foreign rootstock. Grafting onto rootstocks is necessary only when there is a pest or some other problem in the soil.

It doesn’t get more down to earth than that.

Vineyard McLaren Vale

McLaren Vale

This is home to us and our Grenache bush vines. In the 1930′s, when these vines were planted, machine harvesters were not invented (nor was television) and there were many vineyards in the area which looked a little “free range” like ours. As a consequence of this training system you may notice, if you visit the winery, that the surrounding old vines look a little wild, but proud! They are not constrained by trellis wires or other infrastructure, just bush vines growing on the land. It’s an unusual sight these days.

This method of growing has largely disappeared because it requires all of the vineyard operations to be carried out by hand. That means slower, more labour intensive vineyard work but it also means all of our vines get the individual attention they deserve. As a farmer, it keeps you connected to the vines and the land and I think that’s something important that has been lost with modern large scale viticulture. It’s a great way to grow when you can.

There is also grass on the vineyard floor and the vines all look slightly different to each other; all individuals. They are not uniform like the surrounding vineyards which were designed for mechanisation. I like that about them. And there’s more…

The vines are not irrigated, relying on natural rainfall to survive by having their roots through the sandy loam topsoil, deep into the cool red clay below with its life-sustaining water holding capacity. We believe this maximises the quality and the expression of the vineyard character in the wine but unfortunately if we don’t get good winter rains to refill the soil, it also means a very small crop for the coming vintage.

On our McLaren Vale estate we have a total of 5.20 hectares of vineyard, made up of the Winery Block (our oldest vines) which is 2.0 hectares of Grenache bush vines planted in 1934; BJ’s block which is 1.6 hectares of Grenache bush vines planted in 1943 and the Almond Block (1.60 hectares) which consists of 0.4 hectares of Shiraz (our only trellised vines) planted in 2001, along with 0.75 hectares of Graciano bush vines planted in 2000 and 0.45 hectares of Mataro bush vines planted in 2012.

These vineyards produce our Eclipse, as well as the Rosé and a little Tawny.

McLaren Vale is close to the Gulf of St Vincent which has a maritime influence on our climate and our wines. This produces wines with softer tannins and a more rounded mouthfeel which is what makes them so delicious to drink.

Vineyard Langhorne Creek

Langhorne Creek

Langhorne Creek lies about 50 minutes drive south east of McLaren Vale and it’s a special place to grow wine. The big uninterrupted sky means the vines get lots of sunshine whilst the cool breeze drifting off the Lake moderates the temperature providing a perfect environment to grow premium Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as Shiraz in a softer style than is typical of say the Barossa Valley. It’s a unique and privileged terroir.

That’s something the region’s founders recognised from the beginning, planting vineyards and fruit trees as well as growing vegetables on the land around the Bremer River (actually a seasonal creek), which provided a natural flood irrigation to the crops in late spring most years. The early settlers developed a network of levee banks and ‘gates’ to direct the flood waters across the crop land, giving the deep soil a big drink just as the growing season started. It’s a sustainable, natural irrigation system which persists to this day.

There are of course better and less good parts for growing premium wine. Although the land looks flat at a glance, there are subtle variations in height here which make a big difference to quality. The lower lying land which is closer to the Bremer ‘creek’ tends to be too productive for quality wine as a result of the wetter conditions and the coarser textured soil there (more sandy) which encourages big vine growth. The best land lies away from the creek a little, where the soil contains more clay, holding the water tighter and restricting vine growth. The vines here have to work harder and the quality is higher. This is where the Borrett family vineyards are situated.

We have worked with George, John and Joe Borrett for many years now, the relationship going back to the 1980s, when my dad used to buy the grapes from George’s dad. The 20 Rows block has provided the grapes to produce our Reserve Shiraz over all that time, occasionally supplemented with other blocks when circumstances demand. It’s a vineyard consisting of 20 rows growing on a low, single wire (now broken in parts, the vines standing free due to their solid trunks) planted in the early 1960s and 4 acres in size. And the Fruit Trees block has been the backbone of our Reserve Cabernet over the same time, supplemented with grapes from the Main Road or, more recently, the adjacent Bore block when circumstances demand. The Fruit Trees block was planted in the early 1970s and is around 3 acres in size. It produces beautiful fruit but has the unfortunate tendency to be highly variable in yield, one year producing a good sized crop, then only a very small crop the next. We’re very lucky to have such good fruit to work with and the Borretts are experienced grape farmers who look after the vineyards skillfully and diligently, taking pride in what they do. We love working with them.

SOILS

Soils and wine – take a closer look underground.