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Season 2006/07
Our winter pruning programme was finished in good time, due in part to minimal lost days to rain. Yes, this is a drought year and we started the growing season with little soil moisture. It became immediately apparent that any vines near trees were suffering badly with severely reduced shoot growth. Our vines have been established and thrived with low cropping levels on minimal supplementary irrigation and so are well set-up to withstand what the season has given us!
Fortunately, our high aspect spared us from devastating frosts that afflicted many vineyards and regions. Our Riesling has set a good-looking crop, but yields of the reds will be down, especially Cabernet which, from my experience adapts rapidly to the season, has set small, straggly bunches.
Incredible thunderstorms deluged us on the 22nd of January, with 86mm of beautiful rain freshening the district, vines and inhabitants! The stressed vines responding with a flush of fresh growth and our pea-sized berries stretched without splitting.
Lovely ripening conditions have ensued, punctuated by the occasional extreme day, and the fruit is developing some beautiful acid balance and renowned fruit intensity.
Roll on vintage...
Season 2005/06
The season started out with ideal growing conditions promoting vigorous early growth. Frequent rainfall followed through to flowering and fruit set, bringing with it ideal conditions for downy mildew. Ideal flowering conditions resulted in good fruit set and good soil moisture levels saw good early berry development.
Heatwave conditions arrived just before the New Year, but the vines held up well and were toughened up to face 4 days of extreme heat in late January, the hottest 4-day blast in South Australia for 60 years!
The autumn ripening conditions have been ideal for good fruit quality with warm, calm days punctuated by cool nights, allowing terrific acid and flavour development, particularly in the Riesling.
Picking is now finished and pruning has begun. Some extremely cold nights, down to - 4° have clothed the vineyard in a stunning white blanket in the early mornings, but lead to beautiful calm sunny days. Early rains have greened the landscape, and our mid-row sward has burst back into life. The fruit for our wines this year has once again looked good, proving Clare to be one of the most consistently reliable grape producing regions in Australia.
History
The site of the Little Brampton vineyard has been under almost continuous production since the 1860's, although some of the vines were removed during the 1980's in the ill-conceived vine pull scheme.
Replanted during the 90's, the premium varieties, riesling, cabernet sauvignon and shiraz thrive on the west facing slopes at the heart of the Clare Valley at an altitude of 520m above sea level.
The vines receive minimal supplementary irrigation, relying largely on the natural rainfall of the district. At this altitude a gradual ripening process results in fruit-driven wines with natural acidity.
Our plantings are on a 3 metre row spacing with 2 metres between the vines to achieve vine balance for the site enabling us to achieve a super premium quality with minimum intervention.
In an average year bud burst occurs in late September and flowering taking place in late November/early December during the idyllic early summer days.
