Our Vineyard

The old vines in the Barossa have faced their fair share of challenges over the decades and in some cases centuries. Firstly the weather. Just this past 3 vintages we have seen dramatic drought that restricted yield by more than 80% in some blocks in the 2020 harvest, followed by frost and hail in the later part of 2021. In between, 2021 could be one of the best vintages on record. This was followed up by a similar year in 2022. And the vines just go about doing their thing as they have done for more than 70 years at our Estate in Stone Well

Whilst the weather can be dramatic, but what humans have done is more dramatic with fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, water and more water. Thankfully however this is changing as more growers are now focused on doing less, contributing more and sustaining our vineyards for the future generations.

So What do we Do?

Being Certified Organic and Certified Sustainable, our key focus is on improving soil and vine health and we do this without harmful pesticides and herbicides.

Each year we do testing of a select group of vines to determine their health. This year we decided that the hill block (pictured at the front of the vineyard above) needed some extra attention. This Hillside section of our vineyard is one of our best plots, Block 6 Shiraz, Block 8 Field Blend and Block 9 & 10 Shiraz.

This year, we first put out some natural compost and then overlaid straw around the vines. This sets the vines up for better water retention over the coming winter months. It is an expensive process but I am hopeful we will see greater vine health in the years to come. I’m sure we will see this investment come to bear in our wine glasses in the coming years.

Taste the Difference - Our Estate Wines

On June 1 we will release the Estate Wines for this year. Included in this release will be some wonderful wines from 2021 along with the 2020 Shiraz’s. Two extreme vintages and just a small section of what our vines have to deal with!

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