WINEMAKING FROM 1886 TO 1999

The winemaking equipment introduced by J.B. Reymond into his new winery in 1886 and the winemaking technique brought over from France remained in place and in use almost without change for 113 years until the cessation of winemaking at the Wandary Lane winery in 1999.

The Vineyard

Grapes were grown on sandy country on the south bank of the Lachlan River adjacent to the winery with the vineyard covering 60 acres in its heyday.

Viticultural practice was in accordance with the traditional French practice of spraying potential fungal infections with compounds of copper and sulphur.

The spraying was done using the horse drawn spray cart (pictured) drawn by two horses one behind the other with the spray pump powered by a cranked rod driven from the axle.

The Crusher De-stemmer

After harvest the grapes were put through the Horwood Bagshaw crusher de-stemmer (pictured) which was placed just inside the winery over a brick and concrete sump. The crusher de-stemmer removed the grapes from their stems and punctured the fruit to liberate the juice with the grapes and juice falling into the sump.

The Must Pump

The literal heart of a traditional winery was the must pump, a stationary pump through which all juice and wine had to be moved to get it from one stage of winemaking to the next. At Champsaur’s Wandary Lane winery the pump is a nineteenth century French ‘Pombe’ pump.

The mixture of punctured grapes and juice is known as "must". This was drawn up out of the sump (pictured) by the must pump (pictured) with the red grapes being pumped off to the waxed, concrete lined brick fermenters (pictured) adjacent to the must pump. The white grape must bypasses the fermenters at this stage and is pumped direct to the basket press (pictured) which was wheeled out into the centre of the winemaking area of the winery during winemaking.

The white grapes were then pressed, liberating the juice and this juice pumped via the must pump to the fermenters to begin its fermentation.

Red grapes, which, when used for red wines, depend on being fermented with their skins to impart the necessary colour, flavour and wine characteristics, remained in the brick fermenters for up to a fortnight before being pumped, seeds, skins and all, to the basket press to be pressed off the skins. After pressing, the seeds and skins, now known as grape marc, were returned to the vineyard as compost.

The Basket Press

This press, delivered into the Wandary Lane Winery in 1886, was used to press every vintage until the closure of the commercial winemaking operation in that winery in 1999. Since then it has been used for special pressings and remains in perfect working order though over 120 years old. It is now housed at ‘Homedale’.

The ‘basket’ of the basket press comprises iron rings to which are fixed waxed wooden uprights. The iron rings hinge open to allow removal of the grape marc being the grape skins and seeds from which the juice has been pressed. The wheeled base is of iron with a deep trough to collect and drain off the pressed wine. In the centre is a steel spindle with a large spiral thread.

The press, reputedly capable of holding 3 tonnes of grapes, is filled by tipping grapes into the top of the basket. A massively reinforced wooden lid is then fitted around the spindle and a steel ratchet hub spun down the spiral thread.

A long steel bar is then fitted into a socket in the hub and several men, by applying pressure to the bar, slowly wind the hub and reinforced lid down the spindle exerting increasing pressure upon the mass of grapes, until all recoverable grape juice has been extracted.

Maturation

From the press, in the case of red wine, or from the fermenters, in the case of whites, the wine would again be pumped through the must pump, this time to maturation barrels (pictured) in the semi underground cask hall (pictured). There it would remain, in 500 or 1000 gallon barrels, until bottled. The cask hall being semi underground provided a space with consistent cool temperature to assist in wine maturation. The hall was accessed by way of a sloping ramp (pictured) which gave access to ground level.

The Still House

Unlike the modern taste for fine table wines, the taste prevailing from before the time of the foundation of Champsaur through to the middle years of the twentieth century was for fortified wines.

Champsaur produced its own fortifying spirit in the Still House (pictured) adjacent to the Wandary Lane winery. The Still House houses a wood fired pot still (pictured). Alcohol condensed from the still was then re-distilled a second time for further concentration and then stored in the Spirit Room (pictured) until added to the maturing wine to fortify it.

The Winery

The Wandary Lane winery is a large timber and weatherboard structure built over the partially underground cask hall. Directly above the cask hall is the storage area for bottled wine with its massive roof trusses and adjacent to that on the north, the winemaking floor and Spirit Room.

With changing times and changing tastes the Wandary Lane property is now an intensive lucerne growing farm and wine is no longer made in the old winery. The buildings stand however, in their picturesque riverside setting, as a reminder of one hundred and thirteen years of continuous winemaking in the traditional French method using equipment and techniques that remained essentially unchanged from 1886 until 1999.