News from the Vineyards

It's a busy time in the vineyards and we are cautiously excited about the coming vintage. We’ve had good winter rains and water in the soil is down to a depth of 90 centimetres. Budburst started slightly earlier than expected but all in all, we’re set up well for the growing season, with the usual caveat – it’s a long time between now and harvest and anything could happen.

We’ve just finished pruning as we decided to prune as late as possible to mitigate the risk of frost damage, which remains in play in the Clare Valley until early November. At the same time, we've been busy spreading compost on some of the blocks, and have slashed the legume cover crops.

We’ve also been reworking some of our Shiraz vines, at both our Leasingham and White Hut vineyards, this year. This has involved cutting a section of vines down to around knee height and then training up new shoots from last year’s wood. This will help to reduce disease pressure and reinvigorate some of these older vines so that they continue to produce high-quality fruit well into the future. The reduction in yield from the reworking process over the next few years will be well worth the end results and is an essential part of ensuring the health and longevity of these vines.

Meanwhile, work continues in the winery. The 2021 reds are safely tucked away in barrels and all of our 2021 whites have been bottled except for the Adelaide Hills Chardonnay, which is currently being blended and barrel selected in time for mid-November bottling. 2021 was a strong vintage and we’re particularly excited about this wine.