Our Vineyard
Our vineyard is located just behind the cellar door and winery, in the heart of the King Valley. A well-rounded site, we are characterised by a strong Mediterranean climate – warm summer days are followed by cool nights brought about by the Katabatic breeze that blows down the valley off the high country in the evening. This produces ideal conditions for ripening and developing flavour in grapes while retaining nice levels of natural acidity – particularly in white varieties like Pinot Grigio and Fiano and Mediterranean reds like Sangiovese and Nebbiolo.
Our vineyard sits on a gently undulating east facing slope, ranging from 220-260m ASL, with majority of the vineyard planted in an East-West orientation to avoid the hottest afternoon Western sun from hitting the fruit zone of the vines. Our soil is made up of a deep clay loam, mostly red in colour but tending to a darker, more fertile, brown in the lower sections of the vineyard.
The first vines were planted on the farm in 1980, after Gino, Carmel and Peter were approached by Brown Brothers to become contract growers, and the first block of Riesling was planted. Through the early 1980’s the amount of land under vine grew, until the discovery of phylloxera in the vineyard in the late 1980’s led to the replanting of the vineyard, beginning in 1988 – and leading to the vineyard as we know it today. Continuing to grow grapes for Brown Brothers through the 90’s, the vineyard grew to include Riesling, Chardonnay, Merlot, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, before the Italian varieties of Pinot Grigio, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo and Barbera were planted in the late 1990’s as we started to grow grapes for our own label. Planting continued slowly, block by block until 2007, the year in which the first Saperavi vines were planted and ending with our vineyard being as it today, sitting at 60 acres under vine.
Today, we continue to evolve and adapt in the vineyard year on year to continue to improve quality, sustainability and efficiency.
As part of this, recent years have involved a strong grafting program in which newer, superior clones of Sangiovese and Nebbiolo have been introduced, with a constant eye to improving wine quality through flavour and tannin intensity and richness in fruit. Further to this, in 2023 we grafted in both Fiano and Albarino, with both varieties suitedness to our climate, as well as their ability to withstand both heat and rain extremes, making them exciting varieties for us moving into the future (as well as producing delicious wines we love to enjoy).