Our vineyard is planted on rich clay loam soil at Wahgunyah. We believe the Rutherglen region is well suited to grape varieties from the Rhone Valley in France. We have chosen our range with this in mind. We currently have Shiraz and Durif planted and will expand over the next few years to establish Marsanne, Grenache, Mouvedre and Viognier. Our ring in (just because we like it) will be Reisling which will grow well on the sandier soils down closer to the river flats.
The vineyard development has been a slow process. Our first plantings
into our vine nursery were in 2001 from local cuttings. These were then
transplanted out to the vineyard in 2002. We then slowly expanded our
plantings over the last 4 years so we now have 6.2 acres under vine.
The first harvest from the Shiraz block was in 2005 producing a small
quantity of high quality grapes. 2006 saw our harvest double in
quantity while retaining the quality. 2007 looks like being bigger
again and we will see the first fruit harvested from the Durif block.
We have been fortunate to be able to source quality parcels of grapes
from some older vineyards in Rutherglen. This will continue over the
next few years until our vineyard is fully developed.
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