Wine and Viticulture Great Southern Profile

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 · Volume 28 Number 1

INDUSTRY SUSTAINABILITY

• Could cold-active proteases from Antarctic fungi replace bentonite?• Comparing natural wine and organic and biodynamic viticulture

• Regional focus: Great Southern• Tasting: Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris

• Profile: David Botting

WISA winner Chairman’s

Award 2011

V28N1 Wine & Viticulture Journal JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 www.wineb i z .com.au 75

P R o F I l E

David Botting loves Western Australia’s south-west corner.

It mightn’t show in his body language after a working day that has included a 10-hour drive from Busselton to Margaret River, Mount Barker and back again, but you can surely tell by the tone of his voice and the thoughtful nature of his conversation that he’s totally absorbed by the challenges of his job here.

Botting is chief viticulturist at Burch Family Wines, Western Australia’s largest family-owned boutique wine company. It owns two of the state’s best-known premium wine brands, MadFish and Howard Park. A third was added to the company’s portfolio when principals Jeff (chief executive) and Amy Burch (general manager) joined forces with French Canadian Pascal Marchand to create the Marchand and Burch brand.

Vast distances are nothing new for Botting. This affable bloke from Busselton grew up in Mount Gambier, South Australia. He has spent more than 30 years living and working in wine regions far removed from the bright lights and nine-to-five humdrum of life of the city. Indeed, since Burch and Marchand formed their partnership in 2006 and began producing their small but discrete range of super premium Burgundy and Western Australian wines, even periodic visits to France have become part of the job.

“You know, I’m really excited by what we’ve managed to create and develop here in the Great Southern,” says Botting as he examines a handful of locally brewed compost.

“Every day that I visit the region, I find I’m discovering something new and interesting.”

In anyone else’s hands, Botting’s little bit of sweet-smelling, dark organic matter would seem quite unremarkable. But this is no unique management regime; it’s the fuel that’s being used to drive one of the Great Southern’s most ambitious vineyard development programs.

Three sites play key roles in the program. One is located six kilometres east of Mount Barker and is called the Mount Barrow Vineyard. Long-established fans of the property’s wines would know it better as the Scotsdale Vineyard. The change of name

happened a couple of years back to enable the company to separate the vineyard’s regional identity from its Denmark-based winery on Scotsdale Road. The second site – called Gibraltar Rock – is privately owned by a Perth surgeon and located just 12km away in the Porongurup Ranges. A decade or more ago, it was called Karrivale. The third is a recently acquired 40-year-old Cabernet vineyard that has been the long-term source of grapes for Howard Park’s flagship Abercrombie Cabernet Sauvignon.

What makes the company’s vineyard development program so ambitious is its commitment to biodynamics. Biodynamic viticulture has its roots firmly fixed in the

principles of farming and agriculture put forward in the 1920s by Rudolf Steiner. The Austrian philosopher and educator developed his ideas at a time when much of Europe was still recovering from the ravages of war and struggling to provide the agricultural produce it needed to rebuild the continent.

Steiner regarded the farm as a single unified entity comprising many interrelated parts. Beyond that, the Austrian proposed it was also part of a wider system of lunar and cosmic rhythms that influenced the growth and decay of all living things.

Botting’s interpretation of biodynamics comes with far less dogma and is much

BD by designBy Mark Smith

david Botting, chief viticulturist at Burch Family Wines, Western Australia’s largest family-owned boutique wine company, talks about his love of unconventional vineyard management and his involvement in one of the great southern’s most ambitious vineyard development programs.

david Botting with the compost that is being used on one of the great southern’s most ambitious vineyard development programs due to its commitment to biodynamics.

76 www.wineb i z .com.au Wine & Viticulture Journal JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 V28N1

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more concerned about modern-day notions of sustainability and vineyard terroir.

“My approach here is all about genetic diversity,” he explains.

“Sustainability for us means that this land has to be a viable working environment that can sustain a whole range of living things. That means creating less of a monoculture and more of a range of biodiversity of life forms. Composting is an important part of that process. It’s not there just as a soil conditioner or to help with water retention.

“The worst thing that can happen here is not an outbreak of disease or an invasion of pests, but that we’d follow the rule book of conventional vineyard management. We’ve got to get over much of the current conversation about clones and rootstocks, for instance. There’s no one top-performing clone – whatever the variety might be – and there’s no silver bullet.

“The vines on our Mount Barrow Vineyard, for instance, are all on their own roots. That’s been a deliberate choice. We don’t see any compelling reason to use rootstocks. In fact, much of the selection of rootstocks that has taken place to date in places like Australia and New Zealand has been based on increasing vineyard capacity. Our goal here is to build for quality of production, not volume. Slow and steady, rather than fertilise into oblivion.”

Botting, along with David Burch, group vineyards manager, has been responsible for charting the biodynamic course of the Mount Barker development since day one. He and his vineyard team turned

its first sod back in late 2004, the year Botting joined Howard Park after working for renowned viticulturist and industry consultant, Di Davidson. Botting says the project was preceded by a 10-year period of ‘just quietly looking around’ at what was going on in cool climate wine regions like the Great Southern.

With a planted area of close to 60ha of Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, the 200ha Mount Barrow property is clearly set well apart from the pocket handkerchief league of the vast majority of Australian and New Zealand biodynamic vineyards. Its unconventional management practices go hand in hand with an unconventional aspect: vines there look south towards the ocean, some 50km away.

“You get to work with the sun on your back and, of course, there’s a great view, but the site comes with its challenges,” Botting admits.

“The biggest issues we face come with the wind. Even though we’re quite a distance from the coast, and situated 380m above sea level – the highest of any vineyard in Western Australia – our vines really get a battering at times. That’s posed real problems for flowering and fruitset in our Chardonnay, and it also limits early shoot growth in our Riesling. But we can live with it now, thanks to a new innovation we’ve developed especially for this site.”

Botting points towards the many kilometres of green wind cloth he’s had erected on the windward side of every fifth row in the most exposed blocks of the Mount Barrow Vineyard. Literally handmade for the job, the metre-high cloth is retained in place by a system of wires and fabric eyelets that allow it to be lifted into its defensive position in early spring. It is collapsed into position directly underneath vines during summer to allow sea breezes to provide both welcome cooling effects and maximum air circulation through canopies.

Botting says a more permanent structure would have mitigated problems with wind during spring, but may have created other problems during the rest of the growing season. He gives credit to researcher Dr Peter Dry for the idea. The innovation was born out of the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation funded research on wind effects on grapevines he worked on with Dry in South Australia’s Adelaide Hills.

A pattern of declining annual rainfall in the region is also a cause for concern. Botting says this part of Western Australia has been experiencing a long-term drying trend, with 580mm now the average figure for the last 30 years rather than the 700mm that was more commonplace a century ago. As if that wasn’t enough of a

challenge, much of the viticultural land in these parts – including the Mount Barrow site – is lean and gravelly, with little or no water-holding capacity.

Botting anticipated the issue prior to planting. All 60ha of his company’s vines are irrigated by a network of 0.4L/hr drippers located 400mm underground. Rather than simply dropping water on the surface of the soil – and losing a portion of it to the evaporative effects of sun and wind – a meagre amount is periodically applied directly at the rootzone. The practice encourages vines to send feeder roots to greater and greater depths during their early years of establishment, thus ensuring plants become much more drought tolerant over time.

Botting admits his Antipodean practice of vineyard irrigation – as unconventional it may be – doesn’t exactly conform with accepted biodynamic practice in the Northern Hemisphere. But he believes it does need to remain a part of his company’s strategy if the site is to be managed in a way that is genuinely sustainable. He says there is a huge chasm between using water to drive high yields and using it to prevent vines from keeling over in the region’s harsh environment.

Besides, Botting is prepared to doff his hat towards Burgundy in a variety of other ways. All operations in high-density plantings, for example, are done manually, from putting out compost to carrying grapes after hand picking. Thinning back to one bunch per shoot is carried out rigorously by hand in order to achieve a targeted yield of one kilogram of fruit per vine.

Botting explains the high-density Mount Barrow plantings fall within the range of 6000 to 7000 vines per hectare. Instead of being mono-clonal, rows are poly-clonal, a little more in line with the traditional ‘selection massale’ practised in French vineyards.

“We’ve actually brought into the country through quarantine three different clones of Pinot Noir from Burgundy, specially selected by Pascal,” he says.

“They’re not French vine improvement, public release stock. Rather than plant our selections on a row-by-row basis, we’ve established a carefully considered diverse range of clones within randomised block designs; essentially mixing up clones within blocks, but in carefully replicated ways so that we still know what they are and can monitor their genetic variations.”

It’s little wonder Botting takes occasional 10-hour road trips in his stride. The more you think about what he’s up to these days in the Great Southern, the more you understand this man is on a trip of a different kind… the journey of a lifetime.

the biggest issue facing the 200ha biodynamic Mount Barrow property, which features a planted area of close to 60ha of Chardonnay, Riesling, sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, is wind. But, david Botting says “we can live with it”, thanks to an innovation developed especially for the site comprising kilometres of hand-made, green wind cloth that has been erected on the windward side of every fifth row in the most exposed blocks.


There are two ways of getting to the heart of viticulture in Western Australia’s Great Southern region.

One is by road, heading southeast of Perth via State Route 30 and venturing into any of the vineyard cellar doors that can be found around Albany, Denmark, Frankland River, Mount Barker and Porongurup. The other begins in Berkshire, England, with a young agricultural college graduate looking to make a fresh start in a new land.

The first is a four or five hour drive from the city. The second has been the journey of a lifetime for Bouverie Vineyard owner, Tony Smith. Now in his 70s, the one-time jackaroo and founder of Plantagenet Wines is regarded as one of the grapegrowing pioneers of the Great Southern. Indeed, Smith has the rare distinction of being honoured as a patron of the Australian wine industry. The title was bestowed upon him in 2001 by the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia.

Smith says today’s Great Southern – particularly around the small township of Mount Barker, 50km north of Albany – is a far cry from the sleepy hollow it was in 1965 when he first moved there from New South Wales. Barely five years after sailing to Australia as a ‘£10 Pom,’ Smith and his wife Alison arrived to find agriculture in the region still in its infancy. Much of the countryside had remained heavily forested until the 1950s and the coming of the bulldozer. Raising sheep and cattle or growing apples – sometimes combined into mixed farming operations – had since become the typical pattern of land use.

The Smiths’ Bouverie property is at Denbarker, almost halfway between the coastal town of Denmark and Mount Barker further inland to the north. From the outset, the couple toiled long and hard in its ancient soils. Very soon, it became clear they needed to diversify the beef, wool and fat lambs business they were establishing. And they weren’t the only ones in the region to find farming a challenge. Barely two kilometres away, Tony and Betty Pearse were drawing the same conclusion.

Smith recalls that diversification into grapegrowing was practically thrust upon his neighbours.

“Back in 1955, visiting University of

California viticulture professor Harry Olmo identified the Great Southern as a region with significant potential for producing high quality, light to medium-bodied table wines,” he explains.

“When the region’s apple industry was in danger of collapse in the early 1960s, the State Government decided to review Olmo’s findings. It established a grape industry committee in 1963. Within two years, a research paper prepared by the University of Western Australia’s Dr John Gladstones added weight to Olmo’s findings a decade earlier.”

Upon receiving Gladstone’s advice, state viticulturist Bill Jamieson and the Department of Agriculture began focussing their attention on Mount Barker and the surrounding countryside. In 1965, department officers successfully negotiated a 10-year lease for a parcel of land on the Pearses’ Forest Hill property, 18km west of the township. The following year, one hectare each of Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon were added to its gravelly loams, more than a century after early settler and St Werburgh’s founder George Egerton-Warburton planted the region’s first vines.

Now one of the Great Southern’s prime

vineyard sites, Forest Hill would offer its industry newcomers a fresh set of demands for resources. The Pearses had no knowledge or experience of wine and viticulture. But they proved to be fast and skillful learners. The wet spring and early summer of 1966 waterlogged their vines and resulted in a very poor strike rate. More favourable seasons followed the next year. In 1967, the site was successfully replanted and the Department’s trials were finally under way. Forest Hill’s first vintage in 1972 – widely celebrated by the industry in late 2012 – marked the starting point of a 40-year Riesling odyssey in the Great Southern that continues today.

When Angela and Tony Smith came to plant their two hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz in 1968, the experimental nature of the work at Forest Hill required Bouverie Vineyard and developments like theirs to soldier on without help from the Department of Agriculture. But with time came successful patterns of viticulture that could be followed by others, like Alkoomi’s Lange family, and the Roches, at Frankland River. Smith says that Bill Jamieson and the Swan Valley winemaker that assisted him, Dorham

R E g I o N A l R E P o R t

Great Southern landBy Mark Smith

Members of Western Australia’s great southern wine region grapple with several production challenges, but many are achieving great results from a range of varieties, particularly Riesling and Cabernet sauvignon.

Bouverie Vineyard owner tony smith, the founder of Plantagenet Wines, is regarded as one of the grapegrowing pioneers of the great southern and says the region today is a far cry from the sleepy hollow it was in 1965 when he first moved there from New south Wales, particularly around the small township of Mount Barker.



Mann, played key roles in helping to shape the region’s first wines.

Today, the Great Southern lives up to its name by encompassing an area of land almost 150km north to south, 100km east to west, and comprising five sub-regions. According to figures held by Wine Australia, the industry in 2010 had more than two dozen varieties bearing fruit in its 2800 hectares of vineyards. Shiraz headed the list (636ha), with Cabernet Sauvignon (512ha) next in line. More recently, the region’s vineyard area is believed to have declined slightly due to the removal of vines, some planted as part of managed investment schemes. One source estimates the reduction may have been as much as 10 percent of the area surveyed in 2010.

Visitors to the region will find the Great Southern’s dominant soil types are remarkably similar to those of Margaret River, 360km northwest of Mount Barker. Geologically, they are either lateritic gravelly sandy loams (marri hardwood country) or sandy loams (karri country) derived directly from weathered granite. Most are typically brown to grey-brown in colour, with the percentage of clay varying from one site to another. Soil fertility is moderate at best.

The classic wine varieties of northern Europe do seem well suited to the region’s combination of ancient soils and mild to warm climate. Mediterranean selections such as Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Tempranillo and Vermentino are also represented, but only in tiny amounts after recent establishment. These may pose fresh demands on growers. Already, the Rhone Valley white varieties of Marsanne and Viognier appear only marginal propositions for Mount Barker and locations further

south, according to Alex Taylor, at Poachers Ridge.

“It has taken us 10 years to get Viognier going here,” he explains, pointing out its propensity for producing small leaf canopies on his site.

“The cool evenings here also draw out its ripening period. Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling are much easier to grow and ripen. Their wine quality here is excellent and, of course, they have great ageing potential.”

Albany and Denmark on the coast possess the region’s most strongly maritime-influenced climates. Denmark, with its mean maximum January temperature of 25.9ºC and relative humidity during the growing season of around 75% is marginally warmer and more humid than the former whaling station, but that doesn’t tell the full story, according to Yilgarnia’s Peter Buxton.

“Each day between 11.00am and 1pm, we get a sea breeze here in Denmark,” he notes.

“We can be among the warmest parts of Western Australia when there’s a hot northerly blowing, but a 40ºC start to the day can become 22ºC by 2-3.00pm. Generally, temperature variations here on the coast are quite low. Meanwhile, our average October-April rainfall is only about 350mm,” Buxton said.

Vineyards further north of Albany and Denmark show greater continentality and the increasing temperature variability that is associated with it. Frankland River, in the northwest of the region, is furthest inland and experiences the Great Southern’s warmest and least humid ripening seasons. Its mean maximum January temperature of 28.1ºC is almost two degrees warmer than Mount Barker, some 90km to the

southeast. Rainfall around 310mm is typical for a Frankland River vineyard during its growing and ripening seasons.

Surprisingly, Mount Barker’s October-April rainfall is the lowest of the five sub-regions, averaging out to just 287mm per year. Indeed, the mountain itself is something of a surprise. It is barely a bump on the landscape. Vineyards nearby typically have altitudes within a range of 180-250 metres. In general, the region’s highest vineyards are located among the Porongurup Ranges, or the Porongurups, as they are known more colloquially. Their 310mm average rainfall might be a little more than for Mount Barker, but the climate across these northern facing slopes is still very favourable and even slightly warmer on elevated blocks.

The reason is clear-cut, according to Howard Park viticulturist David Botting.

“Our Gibraltar Rock Vineyard, in the Porongurups, sits right up against some ancient granite slopes that are almost 1.5 billion years old,” he explains.

“That huge mass of rock creates a very interesting mesoclimate. As the granite warms up during the day, it captures heat and re-radiates it into the nearby vineyards, providing some slight temperature increases that reduce frost risk, while maintaining relatively low levels of humidity, around 54%. It is quite distinctive; really ideal for Riesling,” Botting said.

As far as pests and diseases are concerned, the greatest threats are little different from those experienced by vineyards in eastern states. Botrytis bunch rot and powdery mildew, in particular, take their toll in some seasons, especially during autumn when there can be periods of high rainfall or high humidity. The former disease is most widely reported among Riesling vineyards. The variety’s thin-skinned, tightly-packed berries make it very susceptible to botrytis and other forms of rot. Interestingly, downy mildew is a fairly recent arrival in the Great Southern, as it is in the rest of the state. The disease was only detected for the first time in a commercial Western Australian vineyard in 1998.

Not so new are the myriad bird species that contribute to disease risk by damaging ripening berries just prior to harvest. Young vines are most susceptible to damage by African black beetles (Heteronychus arator). The risk remains for about two seasons after planting out, beyond which vines become too woody to be damaged. Garden weevils, meanwhile, offer ongoing but intermittent concerns for growers.

“All things considered,” remarks West Cape Howe managing director Gavin Berry, “the Great Southern is a fantastic place for growing vines. With a little bit of vine manipulation, you can get great results from a range of varieties. In the case of Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon, you can make some terrific wines. They’re both bloody good.”

Alex taylor, of Poachers Ridge, says Marsanne and Viognier appear only marginal propositions in Mount Barker and locations further south, saying it has taken him 10 years to get Viognier established.


It has been almost 60 years since pioneering viticulturist and University of California professor Harold Olmo

made his assessment of Western Australia’s potential for table wine production and concluded that the Great Southern was eminently suitable for grapegrowing. Today, proof of the veracity of his research is everywhere to be seen, from award-winning Great Southern wines to vineyard expansions that have seen the industry there approach 3000 hectares.

All that noted, there is little doubt that one of the major problems the Great Southern has had to face during its brief but exciting history has been its lack of a critical mass. The truth is the region still only accounts for about a quarter of Western Australia’s vineyard area, and less than two percent of the nation’s vines.

Ambitious vineyard developments set up under managed investment schemes have done little to improve the situation. Similarly, changes in company ownership and management have also seen the removal of vineyards. Indeed, some analysts have noted that there is likely to have been a net decline in vine plantings in the Great Southern in recent years due to industry re-structuring.

A low population base – just 60,000 inhabitants spread across a handful of small regional centres – and the Great Southern’s remoteness from Perth compound the issues related to critical mass. For producers already well established in the industry, the tyranny of distance looms large when

it comes to matters of logistics. While many of the region’s vineyards are low-yielding and supply fruit to premium and super premium wine brands, machine-harvesting is becoming more commonplace and is often regarded as far more efficient and reliable than hand-picking.


Access to quality water the key to growthBy Mark Smith

Remoteness from Perth and lack of critical mass has led several great southern wine producers to think cleverly about managing their businesses.

Frankland Estate winemaker Brian Kent says machine harvesting is becoming more and more commonplace in the great southern and believes the quality of the fruit has improved accordingly.

the 13ha galafrey Vineyard at Mount Barker produces a range of estate wines that are marketed proactively as ‘dry land’ or ‘dry grown.’ “We don’t believe it’s necessary,” says vineyard manager Nigel Rowe of irrigation. “We are not chasing big yields here, so we simply rely on Mother Nature to provide us with water.”

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“We used to do hand-picking all the time in the early days, but it has just become too difficult for us,” observes Frankland Estate winemaker Brian Kent.

“Out here, you can’t just pick up the phone on the day you need them and arrange for 40 people to arrive in your vineyard for a day’s work. If you try going ahead with a smaller number of pickers than you really need, harvesting in the early morning can drag out and you end up with sensitive varieties like Riesling coming out of the vineyard during the heat of the day. That only oxidises the fruit. I think the reality here is that we now get better fruit quality under machine harvesting conditions.”

It is not unusual these days to find the springtime operations of shoot thinning and trellis wire lifting being carried out

by casual labourers. Sometimes they are sourced from the ranks of backpackers touring the region. On other occasions, they might be visa-carrying immigrants who have recently fled war-torn countries.

Equipment failure is never welcomed in the wine industry, but in the Great Southern it can have wide-reaching consequences.

“You have to be fully self-sufficient, to be able to do everything yourself in the vineyard and the winery, or at least do it with minimal reliance on outside help,” says Kent’s near neighbour, Alkoomi vineyard manager Rod Hallett.

The one-time panel beater is clearly good with his hands. More importantly, he is not averse to using them to help fabricate onsite vital spare parts or

purpose-built equipment such as under-vine weeders.

“If a pump breaks down out here, you need to be able to fix it yourself on the spot,” Hallett says.

“You can’t make a service call to Perth unless you’ve had three or four pumps break down.”

If there is a key word that describes producers in these parts, it’s that they are resourceful. Nowhere has that been more evident than in the development of new and varied strategies to cope with the region’s double-whammy of declining natural rainfall and increasing levels of groundwater salinity, both at least in part attributed to the de-forestation that has taken place in the region over the past 30 years.

Indeed, if one accepts recent climate change modelling, conditions for growers in the Great Southern may see the evolution of a triple-whammy. Unlike Margaret River, which is expected to see average growing season temperatures rise by about 0.25ºC, climate change projections for sites around Frankland River and Mount Barker in the central north of the region indicate increases of 1.5ºC by 2050. Evaporation rates are also set to climb.

If correct, budburst, ripening and harvest periods are all likely to be affected significantly. That brings into question whether the current key varieties there, particularly Riesling, will remain appropriate in the future. This range of regional concerns has added interest and purpose to longstanding discussions there about vineyard irrigation and appropriate water management.

Among those most vocal in their disdain for watering vines are the Tyrer family, at Mount Barker. Their 13ha Galafrey Vineyard was established by the late Ian Tyrer in 1977. It produces a range of estate wines that are marketed proactively as ‘dry land’ or ‘dry grown.’

“Only our Chardonnay, Merlot and one block of Riesling have ever been irrigated on this property, and that was when they were young,” explains vineyard manager Nigel Rowe.

“These days, we don’t irrigate at all. Sure, we’ve got a storage dam but I’ve never seen the pump working. It hasn’t been used in years. We don’t believe it’s necessary. We are not chasing big yields here, so we simply rely on Mother Nature to provide us with water. Our reward is high quality, high intensity grapes.

“In the old days, we used to rotary hoe and clear every second row. These days, we have rye grass in the inter-rows. When it’s cut, we try to get the mower to throw it under the vines to build up a bit of mulch to retain moisture there. Our Riesling

Rob (left) and Angelo diletti, of Castle Rock Estate, in the Porogurups, have been water-wise from the day planning for the 11ha site began.

Alkoomi vineyard manager Rod hallett manages a complex and extensive system of drains, water collection channels and holding dams and has found it is possible to move diverted rainwater to Alkoomi’s storage dams without the use of pumps.


WVJ


struggles a bit, especially in getting a good canopy; so does Cabernet Franc, but then our Chardonnay grows like a weed.”

Bouverie Vineyard’s Tony Smith remembers the old days, too, and things were certainly different.

“During the early years of Plantagenet Wines, our vineyard was unirrigated,” Smith recalls.

“Eventually, we put drippers on during the 1980s. But even today, I’m not so sure you need irrigation. January and February is the struggle period. When we do use it, we try to replicate rain events. Instead of watering once a week for an hour, we water once a month for 12 hours, which would be similar to having a couple of inches of rain. Sure, at times, we can get a little basal leaf loss or a little desiccation, but when we’ve looked at the roots on our old vines, we find they’re down around two metres, effectively drought-proofing them. I think we’ve become cleverer in other ways in the use of our water than we were in the old days.”

Any careful examination of the Great Southern will reveal there is no limit to the cleverness that is applied to water management. At places like Alkoomi, West Cape Howe Wines and Castle Rock Estate, roof tops and car parking facilities now have a dual role, that of providing increased and more efficient water catchment during periods of normal precipitation.

Castle Rock Estate owner Angelo Diletti has been water-wise from the day he began planning his 11ha site in the Porogurups. Inter-row plantings of cover crops are nothing new here. The area between his vines has never been cultivated.

“It’s all grassed and mowed, so that soil erosion and surface evaporation are less of a problem,” Diletti explains.

“Across most of the vineyard, we have planted the rows with a slope of two degrees and waterways at the end. Being on the edge of a hillside means that we’ve got a gully behind us – essentially what would be the start of a creek – and we also collect water from there. We have now got three dams on the property, so we are okay for water.”

Frankland River’s Alkoomi Wines has had to do more than simply capture the run-off from natural rain events. The surrounding sub-region is generally troubled by rising soil salinity. In addition to managing a complex and extensive system of drains, water collection channels and holding dams, vineyard manager Rod Hallett has had to learn to closely monitor the property’s ever-changing water quality. With some very astute planning and the aid of a GPS

device and contour maps, he has found it is possible to move diverted rainwater to Alkoomi’s storage dams without the use of pumps.

Various underground water courses compromised by salinity have also been identified. With significant amendments to existing infrastructure, these salt streams are now being managed effectively, thus reducing the risk of contaminating higher quality irrigation water already held in storage.

“There’s a finite amount of water available in this region, so all our drippers here deliver two litres per hour,” Hallett notes.

“That’s a lot less than many other vineyards around the country would be using.”

Gladly, all is not gloom and doom for potential growers thinking about entering the industry. Tony Smith says that while he has witnessed first-hand a significant worsening in rainfall patterns and soil salinity, it appears human activities can have both negative and positive effects, all within a short space of time. Carefully targeted remediation into the future may bring surprisingly quick remedies.

“In the mid-1950s to mid-60s, the clearing of vast areas of Western Australia in what is now the state’s wheat belt resulted in a falling away of rainfall in an area roughly southwest of a line from Geraldton to Hopetown on the south coast,” he notes.

“In our region, that amounted to a loss of around 100mm of winter rainfall over that 10-year period. In the late 1990s, the planting of blue gums south of a line west to east from Manjimup through

Frankland to the Stirling Ranges has resulted in an increase of winter rain south of Muirs Highway. This is the road that connects Manjimup to Mount Barker. Our rainfall at Denbarker over the last 10 years has been around 60mm more per year than for the previous 10 years.

“Soil salinity in our area has gone down 40 percent as well. Dams on Bouverie dug for trout production and selected for their relatively high salinity – around 1000mS/cm – are now holding water that is less than 600mS/cm, which is almost irrigation quality. The changes have been quite striking, both in magnitude and in the rate at which they have taken place,” Smith said.

Similarly, Yilgarnia owner Peter Buxton says he also has good news for anyone considering investments in the Great Southern’s wine industry. He believes nearby Bornholm – midway between Denmark and Albany in the deep south of the Great Southern – could support significant future development in viticulture. He has been waiting for someone to make the first move in tapping the area’s potential.

“It’s known that there is certainly plenty of good quality water under the ground there,” he points out.

“In fact, there’s a whole coastal strip down there where there’s water. There are also blue gums there, and they are very good indicators of soil fertility. You wouldn’t get high yields as a result of bores being sunk there, but you would get very good fruit quality. Right now, I reckon the best wine sub-region around here isn’t even growing grapes.”

tony smith, of Bouverie Vineyard, says the clearing of vast areas in what is now Western Australia’s wheat belt during the mid-1950s to mid-60s resulted in a loss of around 100mm of winter rainfall in the great southern region during that period.


What are your favourite grape varieties?” someone once asked noted UK wine critic

Jancis Robinson during an online chat session.

“Riesling,” replied the Master of Wine.“And your favourite blends of grapes?”

added the inquisitor. “Riesling and Riesling,” she shot back. “Riesling blended with Riesling would

be pretty good.”Smart answer. Riesling blended with

Riesling can produce superb wines, given a well-chosen vineyard site and favourable growing conditions. To find the proof, one only needs to visit a handful of producers in Western Australia’s Great Southern. Grapegrowers and winemakers there have discovered Germany’s classic white grape really does produce top-notch wines when there’s some genetic diversity in the plant material being grown in their vineyards.

The winning formula for wine show success, five-star ratings and mega point scores in blind tastings does appear to be a blend of readily identifiable clonal selections like D2V3, 198Gm and 239Gm and those simply recorded as McWilliams, Pewsey Vale, or ‘unknown’. Indeed, the latter descriptor is likely to be the one most commonly quoted if you seek data from renowned Great Southern Riesling producers. These must surely include Alkoomi, Burch and Marchand (formerly Howard Park), Castle Rock, Duke’s, Ferngrove, Forest Hill, Frankland Estate, Galafrey, Oranje Tractor, Plantagenet and Xabregas.

“We certainly don’t know what clone ours is; we got the cuttings from Tony Smith’s Plantagenet Vineyards in the mid-1990s,” says Oranje Tractor’s Pamela Lincoln.

Ask Tony Smith, and he’ll explain his earliest plantings date back to the 1960s and came from an unknown selection, sourced from Houghton Wines, in the Swan Valley. Try advancing the investigation and it’s likely you’ll draw a complete blank. Western Australia’s first Riesling vines – including those brought to Houghton – probably entered the industry in the 19th century from Europe

via South Africa. Vast expanses of hot desert country and various quarantine laws are likely to have made importation of plant material from eastern Australia something of a challenge 100 years ago.

Talk Riesling with the variety’s aficionados and many will argue it is the region’s stylish Riesling wines that added the word ‘great’ to Great Southern. True that may be in the case of white varieties, the reality is that Riesling and the Great Southern have been connected only relatively recently. The first varietal wine produced can be traced to the 1972 Forest Hill Riesling grown in Mount Barker. Widespread critical acclaim for the region’s Riesling has really only evolved since the Federal Government passed legislation in 2000 to prevent Riesling being used as a generic term. The initiative undoubtedly has helped remove some of the confusion that had been built up in the minds of consumers used to seeing the word Riesling on bulk wines of dubious origin and quality.

Despite being one of the two grape varieties considered best suited to the region by US viticulture professor Harry Olmo back in 1955, Riesling remains under-represented in Great Southern vineyards. According to data kept by Wine Australia, there were just 202 hectares of it bearing fruit in 2010, around seven percent of the region’s total planted area. More than twice that area is devoted to Chardonnay and, indeed, to Sauvignon Blanc. Surprisingly, there is also more Semillon in the Great Southern – 250 hectares – than there is Riesling.

Granted, producers like Peter Buxton, at Yilgarnia Wines, outside Denmark, will tell you consumers in Australia largely under-appreciate both Semillon and Riesling. The fact remains that Riesling in the Great Southern is capable of producing a much more diverse range of wine styles than Semillon, from sparkling to still table wines; from dry to off-dry and sweet table wines. Practically all can be found in the premium and super premium sectors of the retail market.

Buxton’s own support for Semillon over Riesling should come as no surprise for anyone familiar with both the region and the varieties. Located on

the southern coast of Western Australia, Denmark has a climate that is strongly maritime-influenced. Many of the great Riesling vineyards of the world are subject to the strong climatic influences of continentality and the high diurnal differences that result from warm days and cold nights during ripening and harvesting months.

Buxton’s planting decisions were made on the basis of almost 20 years’ experience. Employed by the Department of Agriculture, he spent the late 1960s and early 1970s helping company principals plan vineyards throughout Margaret River and the Great Southern.

“Like most typical Australian wine regions, we’ve got Riesling, Chardonnay, Semillon, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon all planted in the same postcode,” muses Forest Hill vineyard manager Lee Haselgrove.

“How ridiculous is that? Can we really expect to be good at everything?”

Haselgrove is one of a handful of Great Southern viticulturists who has spent considerable time and money in recent years paring back existing vineyard plantings to sites and vine selections that


Great Southern Riesling: blended for qualityBy Mark Smith

the great southern wine region and Riesling have only recently formed a successful partnership, but it’s a love affair that will continue to deepen.

lee haselgrove, of Forest hill, is one of a handful of great southern viticulturists who in recent years have rationalised their existing vineyard plantings to sites and vine selections that work well together.



work well together. The former South Australian joined Forest Hill in 2007. Among his first tasks was the removal and re-location of a small block of Riesling that had been planted on sand in the decade after the property’s original owners – the Pearse family – moved on in 1989.

“The vines should never have been put there,” Haselgrove explains, “so we hired an excavator, dug them all up and moved them to a more suitable site where they have been replanted in 3.5m rows with 1.5m vine spacings.”

Today, the Mount Barker property has three discrete Riesling sites. Block 1 contains the Great Southern’s oldest Riesling vines, planted in 1966 and 1967. Block 2 was planted in 1975, while a yet-to-be-named block was established in 2009. All are cane pruned and bunch-thinned in spring to produce more open, evenly displayed leaf canopies and targeted crop yields of around 2-3 tonnes per hectare.

“Managing a dry grown vineyard obligates us to consider the entire soil volume that is available to vine roots,” Haselgrove says.

“Our goal is maximise that volume and improve soil conditions in terms of its physical structure and biological activity. We gave up using herbicides here in 2006 after seeing the adverse impacts chemicals have on the biological activity in the soil. Since 2007, we have been broadcasting large volumes of our own composted material. We also cultivate some blocks to force vine roots to extend deeper into the earth. For the first 20 years of its life, the majority of the vineyard was cultivated under vine. I believe that had a major effect on forcing the roots to find their own moisture and nutrients. As a result, the vineyard never looks like it needs water in the way that many irrigated sites do during summer.”

When Judi Cullam and Barrie Smith established their Isolation Ridge Vineyard at Frankland Estate in 1988, irrigation was very much a part of its management strategy. Roughly 50km northwest of Forest Hill Vineyard as the crow flies, this part of the Great Southern is significantly warmer and drier than Mount Barker. Dry grown viticulture can be a challenge, especially in raising young vines.

Almost 25 years on, drip irrigation has largely been left out of Frankland Estate’s management strategies. In its place is a program of intensive organic vineyard management designed to increase biodiversity and soil fertility. Mid-row cul ti vation and a variety of compost ing and mulching tech niques are very much in evidence.

“We haven’t actually removed our irrigation,” explains winemaker Brian Kent.

“We would just prefer to work without it in the belief that it helps produce better and more interesting wines. We do irrigate occasionally, as we did in the very dry summer of 2011. Our vines really suffered that year, and the Riesling had very short shoots early on. Our irrigation system wasn’t really up to scratch, but luckily we got rain in January, which brought everything back to life again.”

Since 2001, Frankland Estate has developed a reputation for organising renowned international Riesling tastings. It also produces three impressive single vineyard wines. Each Riesling is high quality, yet quite distinctive in the way that it reflects the uniqueness of its site and growing conditions. The vineyards are all located within 25km of each other, close to the Frankland River. As a body of water, it may not be especially impressive, but the river’s role in viticulture here is critical. Essentially, it acts as a heat exchanger, bringing cooling breezes from the Southern Ocean up into the valley and surrounding countryside. In spring, the river reduces the threat of frosts by channelling cold air away from vineyards towards the coast.

Those moderating effects over summer are particularly beneficial for Riesling, not just at Frankland Estate but also at nearby Alkoomi, Ferngrove and Netley Road Vineyard. The latter has a history that is almost as long and as glorious as Forest Hill. Formerly owned by the Roche family and established on the farming property of Westfield, Netley Road Vineyard was planted in 1966,

making it one of the oldest vineyards in the Great Southern.

Old Riesling vines – indeed even whole vineyards – are few and far between in the Porongurup Ranges east of Mount Barker. Viticulture did not arrive on these rugged granitic slopes until the late 1970s. And while Millinup Estate, Jingalla and Karrivale pioneered the sub-region, the excellent Rieslings of Castle Rock Estate and Duke’s Vineyard carry the torch for the variety in the current decade.

According to Dr John Gladstones, this part of the Great Southern is truly unique. He describes a dense layer of cold air settling on the valley floor at the end of the day and becoming trapped in place by projecting hills around it. This cold air can then be overlaid by warm night air, ensuring less temperature variability or extremes of temperature during the ripening period.

Duke’s Vineyard owner Ian Ranson has developed a somewhat unorthodox response to vigour in the sub-region. His 13-year-old Riesling vines are managed via a VSP arrangement that carries two pairs of cordons. On the advice of growers in South Australia’s Clare Valley, spur pruning is favoured over cane pruning.

“You often end up with some long and ugly spurs,” he admits, “but we’ll usually come along in spring and remove some of those.”

That, in part, explains the Great Southern’s outstanding success with Riesling. It’s not just Riesling blended with Riesling that produces the best wines. It’s Riesling blended with rigorous vineyard practices that are committed to quality. That’s a secret to success that’s really no secret at all.

duke’s Vineyard owner Ian Ranson has developed a somewhat unorthodox response to vigour in managing his 13-year-old Riesling vines via VsP incorporating two pairs of cordons.

WVJ

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Wine and Viticulture Great Southern Profile