No Biodiversity, no life

By far the driving philosophy in our vineyard. And great wines are made in the vineyard. Every decision we make takes into account the incredible range of wildlife that help our grapes thrive.

Planted by Gary and Sue Scholz (the original owners of the property), we have around 2 acres of hand managed vines on a sloped, north-west/south-east aspect, metres from the Warby-Ovens National Park. The soil is sandy and granitic.

We have 6 varietals, the majority being Durif (Petite Syrah), followed by the little known but amazing Lagrein from Northern Italy’s South Tyrol region. 6 rows of Shiraz (Syrah), and two rows of Cabernet Sauvignon round out the reds. We’ve then got a further 4 rows of Chenin Blanc and 2 of Reisling. We’ve also got some Tempranillo growing in the nursery which will take over the hottest and driest part of our vineyard.

In the early 2010s we managed the vineyard in what you’d probably say is the standard method – spraying Bordeaux mixture (copper and sulfur) to combat fungal disease, mowing between rows and weed control (although this was manual, we’ve never used herbicides). After numerous mechanical problems with old tractors we went several seasons with no spraying which seemed to have little effect on disease so we stopped spraying altogether.

This began a period of research and experimentation. A drone survey of the block revealed a major cause of poor growth due to topsoil erosion from heavy storms – which are fairly common at Mount Bruno. Laurel dug shallow trenches along the contours to halt the flow of storm water and direct it down into the soil.

Then we started applying Rooster Booster twice a year to the undervine which has had pretty remarkable results – a few wet summers has helped as well. In the early 2020s we stopped mowing except for one round in summer to make putting the nets on and harvesting easier – and even then we mow on the highest setting. No mowing for us has several effects:

You might think our vineyard doesn’t look neat and pretty like many others, but that’s just your broken colonial brain so not our problem ;]

We reckon wines are made in the vineyard so we take a pretty minimal approach to our winemaking. Someone smart once said winemaking is a blend of art and science. We’re nerds so we make sure we get the science bit right and the rest is art. We tend to like fruit forward wines and aren’t a huge fan of making enormous reds that aren’t drinkable for a decade – there’s plenty of them in Australia already.

Grapes are hand picked by our mates during our harvest party. We bring them in to the winery in 20L buckets, weigh them and crush them in maybe a 30 year old crusher/destemmer. Sometimes we do some whole bunch and fancier techniques.

The grapes ferment in 500L ‘fermenters’ aka fruit bins on skins. The time on skins is dictated by the conditions of the vintage and style of wine being made. Sometimes yeast is added, sometimes we allow a wild/natural ferment to happen. We don’t add any nutrient – I’d like to believe this is due to our amazing vineyard management but can’t know for sure.

From here, for the reds we hand bucket the must into our basket press and drain the juice directly into old french oak – currently 10+ years old – providing very little oak character. Primary fermentation completes in the barrel and then secondary is allowed to happen. We generally add an off-the-shelf Malo strain (bacteria) for this but it probably isn’t necessary anymore. For the whites, these are put in stainless steel instead.

Sometimes we adjust the pH with tartaric acid – being a fairly hot region, often our must can be quite high on the pH scale which is no good for both flavour and preservation. We’ve started using techniques like earlier picking and blending to reduce the need for this.

Once this is done we may leave the wine on lees for a while, again depends on season and style we’re after. Generally we rack off lees (transfer to another barrel, leaving dead yeast behind) once in winter to take advantage of cold settling. At this point we top up the new barrel and add a little Potassium Metabisulfite (This is your sulfur peeps. Keeps the wine from becoming vinegar by scavenging oxygen before the bacteria in the wine does. And no it is not the cause of headaches in the morning!)

Our reds generally mature in the barrel for 6 – 18 months depending on style and flavour. Sulfite levels are checked every month and we bottle when it tastes good. We then bottle age for about the same time it’s barrel aged before releasing.

First and last generation. No kids, no future. You won’t find a multi-generational family story here. No legacy to uphold, no bad habits passed down. Again, heaps of wines around in Australia that tick this box if that’s your thing.

Laurel is our amazing viticulturist, not qualified but stuff that. Her first action in the vineyard was giving an absolutely-fuck-no to sprays when we bought a tub of Paraquat without knowing it. Still can’t believe they would sell this shit over the counter to us in 2011. Needless to say we never used it.

She’s been pruning like a boss since day dot and is the main reason our wine rocks.

Partner in life Ro, turns the juice into wine. Before he started making wine, his only experience was drinking it. With a relentless thirst for knowing useless facts, he’s gone from absolute novice to knowing just enough to have a good time. The first few vintages were shit until…

Terry. Outdoors man with an eye for wine. Oh the puns. Terry heard from our mate Yik that this couple had a winery and he was onboard straight away. Bringing bartering skills from the Yarra Valley, our wines went from vinegar to Lazerus-style-raised-from-the-dead quaffable wines. He’s since popped out a few little ones but still makes the annual harvest to watch everyone else pick grapes.

We like to make people think, and that starts with our label. We make wine from a combination of how it was made before neoliberalism took the fun and soul out of it, with a dash of modern knowledge and tech so you’re not getting some barely drinkable halfway-to-vinegar marketed as ‘natural’ wine.

Wines should bring people together and that starts in the vineyard and continues right through to your mates’ dining table. And importantly, this should happen without fucking up the soil, plants, animals, water, air and life in general. We even have a Growth Limit. It’s not that hard.

Cheers.