The Vineyard

We have two vineyards, one at Woodend at 620 metres above sea level and there we grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes. These vines are 19 years old.

Then we have Kyneton, 30kms away at 250 metres above sea level where we grow Cab/Sav off 35 year old vines and Merlot off 10 year old vines.

Woodend Vineyard is planted on an underlying slope facing east with the rows running North – South. Kyneton is not as hilly but has the same planting setup. They have the same soil structure which is half a metre of rich top soil – 5 metres of Clay and followed by many metres of Basalt. This is the perfect soil mixture for the growing of cool climate grapes.

Bud Burst is the middle of September and we nearly always pick about the middle of April.Vines are only watered prior to flowering in early December, as this enhances the vines and the fruit for the long journey ahead. The reason we don’t water any more is that we like the vines to stress a little as this helps the flavours and structures when the wine is made.

It doesn’t matter how good a winemaker is, you cannot make a great wine out of grapes that have been overwatered or overcropped.

We purposely crop at one and a half tonnes per acre as this enables us to get the flavours and ripeness we require to make terrific wine.