GROWING SHIRAZ AND CABERNET?

When the modern fine wine industry was taking shape in Australia during the 1970s, there was a belief among many growers that a wide variety of grape varieties would grow equally well in many diverse regions, and that belief, coupled with consumer demand for ‘one stop shopping’ for both red and white wines, led even small vineyards and wineries to present to the wine buying public a wide choice of both red and white wines.

With increasing industry maturity and a far more discerning market, it has been realised that while different varieties can be grown in many diverse locations, individual varieties will produce much better fruit, and therefore much better wines, if grown in certain specific locations.

An industry consensus is developing that Mudgee with its basalt soil, altitude and hot summer days and cool nights, is capable of producing shiraz and cabernet grapes equal to the best that can be produced in Australia.

Having the modest aim of producing wines equal to Australia’s best, we at Champsaur are quite content to accept the expert judgment and limit ourselves to growing at Homedale those grapes best suited to their situation, namely shiraz and cabernet.

JUST GO FOR THE BIG TONNAGE

In certain parts of Australia, where the climate is hot and irrigation abundant, shiraz vineyards have been known to produce upwards of 15 tonnes of fruit per annum. One can only speculate on how much quality is sacrificed to achieve these highly irrigated yields.

We at Champsaur take the view that there is a natural level of fruiting production for every vine and to force the vine to exceed this compromises grape quality, flavour and grape sugar content.

Notwithstanding deep basalt soils and ideal aspect and altitude, we take the view that the optimum fruiting level for Champsaur vines is a modest two tomes per acre, which maximises the colour and flavour concentration in the fruit.

This highly regulated grape tonnage is achieved by precise hand pruning; minimal irrigation and crop reduction by hand pruning off in the month before harvest any bunches which will not be fully ripe and flavoursome by anticipated harvest date.

DON’T TELL ME YOU HAND PRUNE VINES

In an increasing number of Australian vineyards hand pruning of vines has been phased out in favour of tractor mounted pruners and hedgers which run over trellises of dormant vines reducing the length of vine canes, effectively giving the vine a ‘crew cut’.

This method may provide quick pruning and economies of scale, but does not regulate with any precision the length of remaining canes nor the number of buds to be left to form the basis of next years crop. Importantly, there is no careful inspection of individual vines, and removal of diseased or under performing canes, and the resulting mat of new season canes is a breeding ground for the dreaded fungal diseases that can destroy the crop. Similarly, this tangle of canes reduces sunlight penetration and so inhibits fruit ripening and the development of fruit flavour.

In contrast, at Champsaur all vines are pruned by hand. Each vine is gone over by an experienced pruner who removes thin, under performing canes and any canes which will not produce new vertical shoots. Then, care is taken to ensure that remaining canes are evenly spaced so as to ensure that new growth has plenty of access to sunlight and air and then cut to length to leave just the right number of buds for best quality fruit as predetermined with our winemaker at the beginning of each pruning season.

AND HAND PICK?

Across the wine grape industry the last decade or so has seen mechanical harvesting of grapes become the norm. Why? It’s quick, cheap and can be done in the cool of the night. It must have everything going for it; right!

Wrong!

While mechanical harvesting has many good features, its downside rules it out for Champsaur wines.

Its greatest disadvantage is that in beating the grapes off the vines with the harvester’s nylon ‘fingers’ it smashes open, or juices, a large proportion of the fruit, exposing the grape juice to the air and starting the undesirable oxidation process, which can have an even greater deleterious effect if the fruit Is then carted in harvest bins for hours on trucks to a major winery. In contrast, the hand picked Champsaur grapes go across the valley to the winery immediately after picking as whole and undamaged fruit, to lie in the cool depths of the cask hall until put through the crusher de-stemmer each afternoon.

The secondary disadvantage of mechanical harvesting is the inevitable damage caused to the vines by the beating of the harvester fingers, sometimes leaving vines with broken arms and denuded canopy, not to mention the occasional broken vineyard post.

WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE CHEMICALS

From bud-swell in September until after harvest in April, the vines must be protected from fungal infection, particularly the two scourges of the industry, downy mildew and powdery mildew. Ever since the start of scientific winemaking in France over 200 years ago, no one has found a better means of protecting vines than saturation spraying the leaves on a regular basis. We have found that by and large, the best sprays are the old copper and sulphur compounds, which have been in use for over two hundred years.

The application methods, however, have improved over the last century or so and the hand held spray wand on the spray cart of Champsaur in the nineteenth century has been replaced with a tractor mounted, power take off driven, high volume misting sprayer which, as it passes down the vineyard rows, covers the upper and lower surfaces of the vine leaves with protective chemical solution. Even though the dry Mudgee climate minimises the incidence of fungal disease, in order to ensure maximum protection, this spraying process is repeated approximately once every fortnight during the growing season.

Occasionally, an outbreak of more virulent disease may be reported in the district and then one of the big guns of modern chemistry must be brought out and a high tech spray applied. To our way of thinking the application of such a preventative spray, usually not more than once a season, ensures healthier and better quality fruit than if one tried to cope with all today’s diseases only with purely organic remedies.

IRRIGATION

Ideally, one would have the perfect amount of rain falling just when it was needed to produce perfect fruit. However, in the real world of vineyards there is either too much or not enough rain and it rarely falls at the right time.

The answer for Champsaur is drip irrigation. Along each vine row runs a 13mm dripper pipe suspended on a catenary wire 300mm above the ground emitting a precise quantity of water through in-line emitters spaced at every 900mm.

Thus, precisely measurable quantities of water can be delivered from the Homedale bore field to a block of vines.

Our policy is to apply sufficient water to relieve moisture stress and to maintain continuity of grape development without increasing artificially the natural optimum yield of each vine. In some years no irrigation at all is required.

By way of contrast, many vineyards value grape tonnage over quality and flavour and pour great amounts of water onto vines with this excessive irrigation water being taken up by the fruit unit some extraordinary tonnages per acre are produced; Australia’s veritable wine lake!