vineyard

The Black Saturday bushfires had a significant impact on our vineyard. More than 120 vineyard posts had to be replaced, all the irrigation lines required replacement and 50% of our anti-bird netting was destroyed. The vines have shown remarkable resolve with only the worst affected not showing any signs of life. The damaged vines have either reshot at the crown or have thrown up shoots from ground level. Needless to say these vines are going to need a lot of TLC to nurture them back to full production. Ultimately the vines that did not survive will have to be replanted. Both these situations will mean significantly reduced crops for this year and probably the next. At this stage we anticipate that 2010 will yield small crops from all our varieties with the only remaining issue of whether the crop will be a marketable quantity. The other major consequence of the fires was the loss of approximately 70% of the fence that protected the vineyard from our swelling kangaroo population. Extensive work has been performed on the fence and it has now been restored. The fire also abruptly put a stop to the ever increasing numbers of kangaroos and hence there has not been the same pressure on our vineyard from this issue.

The weather has been relatively kind this year with good rains in Spring and early Summer and to date no repeat of the hideously hot weather experienced in 2009. The 2010 vintage will only yield very small quantities of wines and it is yet to be determined if the parcels of fruit will be sufficient to make marketable quantities of our wines. To date the fruit we have is looking very good and should produce some lovely wines.