SOIL and what it needs

South Australian soils and Australian soils in general, are lacking in most of the minor and major elements required for horticulture. The main reason for this is the lack of volcanic activity throughout Australia for tens of thousands of years.

In regards to viticulture for premium wine, there is a bit of a quandary as to whether the issue of lack of nutrients and organic matter should be addressed. There are many references to the best grapes for premium wine being grown in the poorest soils.

At Heaslip Wines we have taken the option of adding organic minerals to the soil, using cover crops & mulch, but no irrigation. The vines still have to look after themselves; they are lower yielding but are still provided with essential micro & macronutrients to produce a quality grape. Organic foliar sprays are applied once or twice a year. Ideally, once at flowering and once when berries are pea sized.

Organic fungicides are applied on an, 'as required' basis. These fungicides consist of Bacillus Subtillis; a certified organic biological mildew control, plus a sulphur and Bordeaux mixture.


2006

ORGANIC ADDITIONS

In the 2006 season one spray of each was used. Milk may soon be added to the spraying regime as this has proven to be useful for helping control powdery mildew. A liquid phosphorous is applied after harvest to help build phosphorous levels for a good start to the following season.

In 2006, sheep and geese were used in the different blocks. The sheep are proving to be very successful for organic weed control and fertiliser. They need to be removed after budburst however, as they find the vine leaves quite tasty!

Miniature sheep are being looked at as an option for a yearlong presence amongst the vines. Unfortunately the geese have fallen victim to either foxes or local dogs.

We will consider running a Maremma dog with the geese next year. Maremma's are a special breed of dog that protects whatever flock they are introduced to.

Straw mulch was put on the older vines - the Cabernet, to help retain moisture in the soil longer into the summer, and to keep the weeds down. They are doing much better than the Shiraz, which were not mulched. The mulch is showing already to be a benefit in retaining moisture. I wish we had done the Shiraz too. But the weeds weren't as bad there - which is the main reason we mulched - and money was tight.

RIESLING

We also planted 1 acre of Riesling this year, the variety that has given the Clare Valley international recognition but the driest winter in the region since records have been taken - about 150 years - has created a few issues for us!

The young vines we planted, in July, started dying in September due to lack of moisture in the soil so we have started watering them to keep them alive. It is not that unusual to water young vines to help them get established, especially in January/February after a hot summer, but this situation is unheard of: Such is farming! Is it global warming or just a freak season - probably a combination of both.

DELIBERATIONS

There is still no rain now (in November) and we will have to decide in a month or two, if we don't get any rain, whether we harvest this year or not.

It is a tough choice - do we stress the still young vines too much by allowing a full crop to develop. This may have consequences for a few years to follow. Or do we let the vines do what they will and maybe pick a small but very intense, good crop this year. Hopefully some good rains will solve our problems, but in the driest state on the driest continent on Earth, there is certainly no certainty of that!

Two advantages of a dry year however, are having minimal weed and fungal problems.


2007

PRUNING (as published in Newsletter #2)

We adopted a different pruning technique this year to try and counter low bunch numbers and light foliage. The recent low bunch numbers have a lot to do with the minimal rainfall of recent years – remembering that 2006 was the driest winter in recorded history and this year isn't shaping up to be much better. But given we have dry grown, low yielding vines in an area that is really pushing ahead now with irrigated vines, we thought it worth trying a different technique to see if we can increase the bunch count a bit and help protect the ripening bunches from late summer sunburn due to the light foliage.

So, this year we experimented with a technique similar to the machine pruned style called 'minimal pruning'. This involves basically moving through the vines and cutting all spurs (last year's growth) back to two or three buds but not completely removing any of these spurs at all. This means there can be thirty to forty-odd spurs per vine, compared to the fifteen that are left after a standard prune.

Fairly radical! The reason for using this technique on large properties is to save pruning costs. After an initial imbalance of excessive foliage, a few years of minimal pruning results show a return to good foliage/fruit balance. In our case we don't expect any foliage 'blowouts' due to no irrigation. The major concern for us is that with another dry year the vines won't be able to handle the extra foliage at all, and either not produce fruit, drop it at an early stage, or not be able to carry it right through to harvest.

Various factors will determine this - total winter rain, follow-up spring and summer rain, overall spring and summer temperatures and weed competition.

We can't really go any worse than zero fruit as we did in 2006, so there is only one direction to go!

RAINFALL

The year so far has seen a very mixed bag of monthly rainfalls. After the very dry 2006 winter an above-average season was badly needed this year. With a promising start to the year we have come to the end of another below-average winter. June produced 31 mm, July 55 mm and August 20 mm, which is a total of 106 mm, well below the average winter rainfall of 209 mm. There were some reasonably significant falls prior to winter to help compensate - 97 mm in January, 62 mm in March, 90 mm in April and 25 mm in May.

Without good follow-up rains in spring and summer we could be in a bit of trouble again this year. Not being able to produce a crop two years running will be tragic, but such are the vagaries of non-irrigated farming.

MULCH

We mulched the Shiraz in March this year with barley straw. We had it applied extra thick and hope this will help moisture protection post - winter. One thing it will definitely do is help with weed control. It will totally eliminate the need to do any weeding under the vines.

Talking of which…

WEEDS

We have started to get a lot of cape tulip coming up in the blocks over the last two years, and have started a spray program to try and eliminate this.


2008

POST PRUNING SYNOPSIS (as published in Newsletter #3)

The minimum pruning technique we adopted seems to have had some positive results. We have managed to achieve a reasonable crop with an okay canopy. The crop this year is more consistent, with more vines producing an average yield. Some of this can be put down to the vines maturing more, but with such a dry year last year they can't have extended their root zone too much. So, the pruning technique could well have helped. It will take a few years to fully evaluate the effectiveness of the technique.
I was speaking with Jim Pearson of Pearson's Wines in Watervale the other week, and he has noticed an increase in canopy weight after an early pruning, as the vines have had a chance to put on more growth before the hot weather starts to shut them down. This would possibly equate to a slightly earlier bud burst enabling a quicker start to the season for shoot growth.

It just so happens that we pruned early last year (in May compared to late June/July in a normal season). Maybe this has something to do with the increased canopy this year, but would not necessarily account for a higher fruit count. The fruit count improvement could be due to the increased number of spurs or it could just be because of the fruit-less season last year.

A much longer-term overview will give a clearer picture. This small example shows the different little permutations that can consume the mind of a viticulturalist, and part of what makes the growing of grapes to produce wine such an interesting and exciting thing.

WEATHER

This winter broke a new record, set last year, for the driest winter in South Australia since records have been taken. On top of that we have also had the driest January in eight years and a three-week spell between late December and mid January in which temperatures ranged between 37 and 43 degrees Celsius.

Fortunately we had some reasonable downfalls in spring, which have helped maintain the crop. It is still amazing that the vines have produced what they have though. An inch of rain right now would be very welcome and help see the vines through to harvest. Without a bit of rain now, the vines may struggle to finish off the season, and therefore produce a wine that is missing that something special that a good season produces.

A very hot three-week spell starting December 26th brought about dramatic colouring of the grapes and accompanying hot winds caused some burn in the Shiraz, especially at the top of the hill. The Cabernet Sauvignon down the bottom of the valley along the winter creek were unscathed. Harvest should be early this year. Shiraz looks like being picked early in March and Cabernet Sauvignon late March.

So far in February (now the 14th) we have had cool weather. No rain to speak of though, of course! The grapes are holding up well and sugar levels are slowly building. A cooler February will produce a wine with a bit more elegance. Fingers crossed for the next three weeks.

HARVEST

SHIRAZ

We picked the Shiraz - Sunday March 2nd. We had a good crew of family and friends and a great after-picking party. (Check out the photos in the newsletter archives on the home page).

The crop was down on weight–it is after all not really the best time to be trying to start a winemaking venture but we are looking at it in terms of a much bigger picture. We hope the vines and our family will still be making wine here for another 100+ years.

I guess our way of looking at it is that our wines are a true representation of the seasons that we are having in the Clare Valley. There is no blending of wine from past seasons or different regions, and no irrigation for stressed vines.

CABERNET SAUVIGNON

We picked the Cabernet Sauvignon on Wednesday March 12. There was a mix-up with our winemaker not getting back to us on the date best for picking, so the grapes were picked a bit late.

A normal Baume reading for red grapes is 14.5 - 15.0, ours were reading 18.0!! Baume is an indication of ripeness and potential alcohol reading. Our wine won't be 18.0% alcohol though as this can be tweaked a bit.

It has been a crazy harvest in the Clare Valley but when all the dust settles, who knows - maybe we will end up with some decent wines in 2008!

RIESLING

We replanted dead Riesling and continue to re-peg wine guards as they blow in the wind channel of that particular slope. The survivors are hardy and promise for a healthy fruit however. (QUOTES – “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”)

ANIMALS

The sheep are still controlling the weeds and the cape tulip eradication program has been highly successful. The fox continues to lurk and despite, Rosie – the long eared red Kelpie in the photos, they have since feasted on four Rhode Island reds, two Guinea fowl and six ducks. Lambs have remained unharmed however and the flock is now a wholesome 13, plus the freezer has been kept stocked with the goodness of organic free-range food.


2009

Pruning this year was done by contractors as Anthony had no time to come down and do it. Extra costs but at least we know a good job is being done. So this threw out the window the experiment of the minimal pruning.

Overall that is not a bad thing as I was becoming convinced that it was not the way to go. I think the vines benefit from a regimented and extreme cutback every year to give them a much longer life overall.

We will have to put the low yields down to the dry years and young vines and work being done on the soil.

And our yields for 2009 have actually turned out to be very good, so that is fantastic. Our cabernet yield was double anything we had harvested before! Shiraz was fairly consistent.


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