What's happening in our vineyard, by Sam Middleton, Head Winemaker
As most of you are aware Phylloxera was first discovered in the Yarra Valley in 2006. To his great credit David did not waste any time when he acquired the neighbouring, south facing paddock in 2007 and began planting vines grafted on resistant rootstocks in 2008. It is for this reason that we have rootstock vineyards now in excess of 10 years of age (in fact our first rootstock vineyard was a block of Merlot planted in 2003, 3 years before any Phylloxera was detected in the valley. This block is now 16 years old!). Our goal back then was to convert, as quickly as possible, at least half of our vineyard area onto phylloxera resistant rootstock, without the removal of any of our exceptionally important old vine, own rooted blocks. By 2021 we will have achieved this.
It is a blessing we still have no known phylloxera detections on our site and we will continue to work extremely hard to ensure we stay this way for as long as possible. Due to our isolation from other vineyards, being self- contained with no external machinery entering our property combined with strict farm gate protocols we believe we can remain phylloxera free for longer than most in the valley. The need to replant has given us a great opportunity to assess where certain varieties are best suited for planting, along with increasing clonal diversity across our vineyard. Our focus has been in moving our Pinot and Chardonnay onto the cooler south facing slopes while continuing to plant our northern facing sites with our flagship Quintet varieties.
