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[ Home ] Having being employed by medium sized wineries in the Grampians and Pyrenees between 1987 and 1998 I eventually realised that growing my own fruit and producing our own label was something that I had to do. Our property was suitable and the soil really only needed the usual amelioration prior to planting vines. Sounds relatively straight forward doesn't it, however this idea was a complete divergence from our initial plans for our property. When Kaye and I were looking for our future home and land we had discussed what we would do, of course we needed a suitable area for our horses and I had ambitious plans for an olive grove (several years before they became very popular) plus lavender, cherries, figs and lots of trees. Today we have lots more trees, some cherries and lavender, figs and only last year we planted a small olive grove. Several years ago we purchased the adjoining property and have put in a couple of dams, apart from tending the existing vineyard we are going to plant more trees and include a mix of figs, cherries, oaks, olives and maybe some walnuts and hazelnuts. The later I've become excited about and have been studying their use in growing truffles. The main purpose of all these trees is not necessarily for commercial purposes but because I believe in the broader principals of permaculture and the desire to ultimately leave a sustainable resource for others to use. The vineyard was established in 1997 with 5 short rows planted in a 2 x 2 metre spacing. These vines where trained up to a cordon wire 2.3 metre high to provide a nice shady canopy under which we intend to place a long table for grape pickers lunches and the like. By 1999 we had expanded plantings to 2 Ha. The first few years were difficult as water for irrigation was in short supply and weed control required a great deal of manual digging out and vine-row mulching. I manage our vineyard with safe horticultural practices using minimal sprays of wettable sulfur and copper hydroxide. Fortunately the weather here does not cause a serious mildew problem and with regular monitoring of the vineyard we can apply our sprays sparingly. To control weeds we have cultivated the vine inter-rows and sown a mixture of plants including rye-corn, oats, green feast peas, strawberry clover and 'Blockout' (a mixture of fesque and rye grasses). When slashed down in late spring to early summer the rye corn provides plentiful mulch on the vine row which reduces soil moisture loss and encourages worms and microbial growth in the soil. The fesque and rye grass was introduced last year and provides a permanent cover throughout the year and only requires mowing occasionally. We will be striking many lavender cuttings this year which will planted out later in the middle of the vine inter-rows for the first few rows of each block. Why? Because it smells terrific and looks good and has many other uses. By late January 2002 a reasonable crop was just starting veraison and looking like producing our first commercial harvest. Unfortunately due to a fast burning grass fire early in February we lost almost every grape and suffered an enormous set back. All the irrigation lines were melted and looked like twisted licorice they had to be replaced ASAP so we could maintain water to the vine roots. About 80% of the vines were scorched and lost all of their foliage from the radiant heat. Many vines were cut right back to two buds at pruning which meant retraining and tying up (a chore that I find monotonous). The original five rows suffered the most as they were heavily mulched with horse manure and sawdust from our horse stables, the sawdust smouldered for ages and charred most of these plants close to the ground. Now more than five years later on and after plenty of remedial work (without a single replant mind you) one would hardly know that the fire had happened. In March 2004 we harvested a fair crop making three hogsheads of terrific wine. In 2005 and 2006 about 2.5 tonnes was harvested and produced 5 hogsheads, the quality just gets better and better. The original five rows have only half the number of vines remaining which have grown extremely well. It's been amazing to watch them grow back from tiny buds, they looked totally ruined in 2003 and only grew slowly, I really didn't have much hope for them after the fire, but when you see them now they have performed strongly and it looks like 'project pergola' will happen after all, if time permits I will erect the cross wire this spring. The winemaking is done simply and uses traditional principles, I don't mess around with wild yeast fermentations and will not add anything to enhance tannin or colour. In short I believe that if ancient civilizations naturally made wine, drank it and enjoyed it then; then it's good enough for us now. The area where we can improve our product is in the bottling and closure technology. I find 'corked' wine very disappointing and it usually spoils a good meal if there isn't another bottle on hand. Fortunately, years ago I found a reliable supplier of cork whose products perform very well, in fact so well that when the opportunity arose in 1998 I become the Victorian representative for the Australian Cork Company (ACC). If you require additional information about these corks, please contact me by email. Having said that, why then have we bottled the Massif Shiraz and used Stelvin capsules? The cost is one reason but more importantly because there is now tremendous market support and many customers have asked for them. The wines do mature differently and ultimately reach maturity later, but as yet apart from corks Stelvin closures are the best alternative available. Cheers, Simon Clayfield |