The milestone of fully restoring our vineyards after the effects of the 2016 – 2020 drought was achieved this month!
Effective Viticulture is step one to producing award winning wine, propelling the Queensland wine industry forward and ensuring the legacy of Hidden Creek Winery. We are proud to have invested in and completed our rejuvenation of our vineyards this month.
2016 to 2020 was tough for the Granite Belt region with widespread drought and terrible fires. Here and there vines had suffered, partly died back and some died altogether. An audit of posts has never been done, and due to rot and termites quite a few were replaced and then all the wires tensioned.
The bottom block by Eukey Road originally consisted of Merlot. Wild deer did some damage to the new shoots, but we fenced and new rootling vines of Viognier and Tempranillo have been planted in this vineyard to fill gaps and replace any under-performing vines. In the top vineyard, we filled in any gaps with the same variety – generally Shiraz. We also extended the vineyard with new Marsanne rootlings.
We chose a mixture of clones and rootstocks, most of the rootstocks are Paulsen (a moderate to high vigor rootstock with excellent drought and salt tolerance, a cross of V. berlandieri x V. rupestris). Some Tempranillo is on Richter rootstock (Richter is a moderate vigour rootstock with good salt and drought tolerance. It is particularly well suited to moderate to high potential sites in warm climates (e.g. Barossa Valley/Mclaren Vale) or low-moderate potential sites in cooler climates (e.g. Yarra Valley). It is also a cross of V. berlandieri x V. rupestris).
Our awesome Farm Manager Danny Folker is an expert at irrigation and he has added a run of pipe and installed various valves so that all the vineyards receive water evenly. The top vineyard now has two zones only whereas before there were several uneven zones and valve manipulation was time consuming and tedious. We are experimenting with solar powered solenoid valves that can be operated remotely.
We soil tested all the vineyards and especially where the new Marsanne rows are located and purchased specific fertilizer and have been applying it for the Spring growth.
The amount of planning and labour of love we put into our vineyards and wine goes beyond the wine label, and we look forward to sharing the 'fruits' of our labour with you, including our new releases for 2022 (and new wine labels!)
We are so lucky to have Andy Williams, legendary winemaker (and multiple award winner) at the winemaking helm. Andy has magic hands and continues to produce wines which, together with the outcome of our vineyard site, climate and culture, produces a taste unique to our region - or, what the French call, "Terroir!"
