{"id":8478,"date":"2023-05-25T07:03:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T19:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=8478"},"modified":"2023-05-25T07:03:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T19:03:00","slug":"winemaker-series-dave-bicknell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=8478","title":{"rendered":"Winemaker series: Dave Bicknell"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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In the days before I arrived in the Yarra Valley, one winery from the area received an award from \u2018The Real Review\u2019 as their \u2018Winery of the Year\u2019. As one of the most celebrated places in the region – Oakridge<\/b> is also often mentioned in Hallidays Wine Companion (and indeed is listed in the Runners Up section of the 2022 guide). Also in that guide, winemaker Dave Bicknell receives over twenty scores of 93\/100+ for the Oakridge wines. It\u2019s no surprise then that a visit is pencilled in for Day 1 of the trip\u2026<\/p>

Dave Bicknell<\/b>: I\u2019m glad you\u2019re here on a dry, sunny day. The last week in March and the first days of April – in twenty days we had thirteen of those as rain days. It\u2019s just been an absolute struggle to get some things over the line.<\/p>

WineFolio<\/b>: I get a sense from what I\u2019ve read that you\u2019re a football fan.. but how does being a big football fan tie into making wine in Yarra Valley?<\/p>

DB<\/b>: It doesn\u2019t. One thing I certainly can\u2019t do is play football any longer. I played well into my late 40\u2019s, but everything hurts now. When we came to Melbourne in 1974 we had no family in the country. I was supposed to go to sea. My father was a Ship\u2019s Captain, Master Mariner; and so was his twin brother – and going back another five generations before that. So they were born and bred in Leith, Edinburgh; and went to sea during the Second World War. Dad spent a lot of time on the trade route from England to the US and down to Argentina. He developed a taste for wine. So when we growing up as kids there was always wine on the table. When we moved out here there was more wine on the table because it was so good and so cheap!<\/p>

After I finished school, a mate of mine who came from Rutherglen told me about a course where you could go and study wine. I said \u201cYou\u2019re kidding – you can study this? That\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do!\u201d So I went to Roseworthy and that\u2019s where a lot of the connections are from. Tom Carson, Matt Harrop who\u2019s up at Curly Flat – we\u2019re a very tight group – and Steve Flamsteed and I shared a house together for three years. All our kids have grown up together.<\/p>

I worked for the De Bortoli family for ten years. I started there in 1992. Actually Brian Fletcher had offered me a job at St. Huberts, before SouthCorp bought it. We were students – a group of four of us – and we said we\u2019d go up to De Bortoli and see what\u2019s going on. There were a few characters in common and they said \u201ccome back here and work\u201d. I\u2019m not sure things are the same now, as the industry has grown enormously.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/b>: Is there anything that you don\u2019t like now, about how the industry has changed?<\/p>

DB<\/b>: The reliance on Marketing and Commerce now. Doing deals. It\u2019s a lot harder and it\u2019s a lot bigger, and a lot of it is about connections more than anything else. It\u2019s not quite as friendly, I think as it used to be – because it is bigger. But the next round of kids that are coming through, and I\u2019ve had a bit to do with a whole group of them, and they\u2019re fantastic. They\u2019ve got the idea that it is about quality – no.1 – rather than anything else. And I think that\u2019s important. So there\u2019s a whole group who I think are probably a bit more like we were. Where we just push each other.<\/p>

WF<\/b>: I was reading that Young Guns of wine website and awards thing before I came over.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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DB<\/b>: And there\u2019s the obsession with youth, as opposed to experience\u2026<\/p>

WF<\/b>: Ah yes, the Cult of Youth! In New Zealand we had a Prime Minister who was the world\u2019s youngest elected Head of Government at 37. What kind of life experience is that, to be leading an entire country? But, I\u2019m not going onto politics\u2026<\/p>

But does Yarra have that \u2018next steps\u2019 stage of evolution ahead of it – and perhaps the next generation are the ones to take on that challenge – of the sub-regional conversation? I watched an interview with Mac Forbes last month where he alluded to that, and talked about how Yarra is seen as this one big place, but really it is lots of small places and he was going to have his Villages label to reflect that?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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DB<\/b>: Well Mac and I differ on views on this. Yering Station and Deborts do that with their labelling as well. The things with the Yarra is that because there\u2019s nothing homogeneous – the only homogeneous part of the valley is probably here in front of the Warramate Hills. You go from Giant Steps, Yarra Yering, Dominique Portet and Medhurst – then us and Yeringberg, St Huberts and Mount Mary. There\u2019s a lineup there! It\u2019s a small section where pretty much all the good Cabernet in the valley comes from.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Everyone talks about the Yarra with Chardonnay and Pinot, but arguably the three most important wines in the Valley are still Cab! Mount Mary, Yarra Yering and Yeringberg. Even with Oakridge – we\u2019re in the zone but we\u2019ve been pigeonholed as a white wine producer. We like our Chardonnay, but we put the same amount of attention into all the wines we make. We\u2019ve landed in the spot where we\u2019re able to do this effortlessly because we\u2019re growing it in the right place in the valley. And that\u2019s the key to it.<\/p>

The sub-regions has got whiskers on, because you haven\u2019t got vineyards planted next door to each other, and often it is the signpost rather than the village. The village happens to be in Seville, or Woori Yallock or wherever it is, but there\u2019s no real sense of homogeneous. A few hot spots. Gladysdale is a hot spot – where Willow Lake and Hazeldene are. Deer Farm, Treasury, Wombat Creek\u2026but in fact there\u2019s two parts to Gladysdale – there\u2019s the Lower and Upper part! And they are quite different. Only three or four vineyards in the high part, but there\u2019s four or five really important ones in the lower part.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Woori Yallock – again, there\u2019s a hot spot there. But it\u2019s not like looking at a map of Burgundy where there\u2019s a degree of certainty – we don\u2019t have that. And because there\u2019s rolling hills, if you point North-east versus North-west, the result is entirely different. My argument I\u2019ve had with Mac a number of times is that it is a collection of sites, it\u2019s not a collection of villages. Much as you would like to make it that because it is easy to form a story.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Australian industry, particularly in the cooler regions, is still growing and learning. And there\u2019s nothing wrong with changing your idea on how things are – or what they are\u2026because it is changing! And the climate is changing as well. That\u2019s had a massive impact, just on what happens in the valley. 10-15 years ago when we were up in that cooler part of the valley, we had the run of the roost. People were asking us to buy land! And now you can\u2019t buy it for love nor money! It\u2019s got out of control. Everyone wants to be in the same little island up at the top of the hill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Then of course you have a season like this where everything is thrown on its head. We\u2019ve re-engineered as much as we can in the winery to cope. We\u2019re a one-fill winery. The 200 tonnes of red that we should get – and haven\u2019t for four years now – we can fit it all in. In 2016 we did the entire vintage of 450 tonnes, from sparkling to Cabernet, in 23 days. You don\u2019t take a break. Don\u2019t look, and just go. And this year it\u2019s been very similar – a sprint over a couple of days. The last Thursday, Friday, Saturday – just before that 65mls of rain, we did 110 tonne; to get as much in that was as close to ready as we possibly could. Manic for two or three days, and then tapered off completely. We\u2019ve had three vintages in one. And we\u2019re not finished. Rain is forecast next Wednesday. Even if we had seven days of this sun we\u2019d be fine. That\u2019s all we want.<\/p>

WF<\/b>: Is what you\u2019ve learnt to do going to work for the next forty years?<\/p>

DB<\/b>: Dunno. We\u2019ll probably have to make changes. Because there\u2019s been four small vintages it is hard to get hold of fruit. If you\u2019re not growing it yourself then you\u2019ve got nothing. In some it\u2019s good because the \u2018virtual winemakers\u2019 who buy a few tonnes here, there and everywhere and really disrupt business and have forced the prices up, are going. Fruit up here – Upper Yarra Chardonnay – is as expensive, if not more expensive, than Tasmanian fruit now. And of course the growers get those prices one year and they think \u201cwoo-hoo – bring on next year!\u201d The fruit that we were buying three years ago at 1800 to 2500 a tonne is 3500-4000 now.<\/p>

WF<\/b>: And at Chapoutier in Heathcote, they were saying they can\u2019t open the Cellar Door because they can\u2019t recruit someone to stand in the showroom for $30 an hour\u2026nobody will do it!<\/p>

DB<\/b>: We have to pay the pickers – unskilled labour – $36 an hour. That\u2019s Monday to Friday. On a Public Holiday we\u2019ve got to pay unskilled labour $66 an hour to pick frickin\u2019 grapes! It\u2019s insane. This year the timing has just been exquisite and there\u2019s so many public holidays. My budget is shot to pieces. The good thing about this being a big company is that it has allowed me to not worry so much about the finances. There\u2019s an expectation that I will keep the quality when it does come in.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/b>: And what about your own projects then? Is that under pressure?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

DB<\/b>: I have been doing my own label for ten years – Applecross. But the vineyard I have been managing for the last ten years fell over this year. Not one berry got picked. It doesn\u2019t matter how long you\u2019re in the industry and how much you know\u2026 Early downy! We were actually going along OK and there was a small-ish crop there, and we got to veraison. Then, almost like overnight, all the bunches fell off. Gone through the whole growing season with all the costs, and I went in there one morning and it\u2019s just like \u201cDid someone come in and pick this?\u201d Because all the bunches were just gone! So that hurt.<\/p>

WF<\/b>: Do you much to do with the regional scene – are you on boards?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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DB<\/b>: Yes and No. I used to be a lot more involved, but I\u2019ve stepped back from the whole thing. Sometimes it is better that you step away, than step in. I was heavily involved with the local Wine Show going back quite a few years ago because it was a basket case. It was totally embarrassing, so I helped get that back on track. So it was all set up the right way, with the right objectives. Not having any local judges so it\u2019s an external audit. All those types of things. I get asked for an opinion on things all the time, but I\u2019ve actually stepped off all the local committees as well. There\u2019s a time when you realise it\u2019s time to let someone else come through, to bring different ideas in.<\/p>

We saw this in Wine Shows in this country around 15 years ago where there were three or four wine judges who were in charge of all of the Wine Shows and the results all seemed to be the same. You\u2019d never get anywhere as a judge unless you were pals with the guys who were running these shows. A whole group of us decided we wouldn\u2019t let that happen with us. We do three-year rotations, then it\u2019s somebody else. Keep the ideas and young people coming through. Keep the energy up and the cynicism out.<\/p>

WF<\/b>: What do you think about young people\u2019s relationship with wine generally. I keep hearing that less wine is being drunk, and they don\u2019t want wine the way it has been for generations – something different every year, like craft beer, or kombucha\u2026<\/p>

DB<\/b>: It is like that. You see the rise and rise of natural wine, and still the majority is not great. But the rise has been fuelled by young people not being able to afford to buy marquee wines. Things that we used to buy 15, 25, 30 years ago – and we thought they were expensive then! Now you have to sell a kidney.<\/p>

WF<\/b>: But you would on special occasions go and buy a bottle of Lafite or Yquem. But you say that to people now and they assume you\u2019re lying! \u201cHow can you possibly afford to do that – it\u2019s a $1000 a bottle.\u201d Well it wasn\u2019t back then. It was expensive, but it wasn\u2019t so out of reach to be impossible. But then I don\u2019t understand things like what Penfolds are up to – they had Grange, but now it\u2019s so many extra labels and versions, that it is lost in translation. I can\u2019t get my head around it.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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DB<\/b>: But these wines they\u2019re making now – Napa for example. You can argue that it is a logical extension of their blending program. They\u2019ve been blending regions together here for ever, as part of Penfolds methodology, and they\u2019ve just extended it into other countries. Being able to put together a Napa and French blend means they can sell it in China.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

We have a house style with our whites, and that\u2019s possibly why we\u2019ve been successful. It\u2019s fairly well articulated what it is, and that\u2019s been of great benefit to us. When we look at the reds, it hasn\u2019t been so clearly defined, and part of that is because we\u2019ve moved around to a number of vineyards and haven\u2019t been able to hold that conversation. Penfolds have been very good at that, and house style has been key to it. And blending to house style rather than anything else. Here\u2019s a benchmark of quality and let\u2019s push everything to get to that point. Whereas for us it is a bit more top down.<\/p>

And we don\u2019t control all of our vineyards, so the ongoing battle from growers is \u201cShow me the Money!\u201d The thing with being a big company – while the reaction hasn\u2019t been as lightning fast as I would like, but it\u2019s been reasonably good in that we now have three vineyards that we own – this one, Hazeldene and the original Oakridge Vineyard – Five Oaks. We lease Henk, Funder – which has been a staple Chardonnay for us for 13 years. It\u2019s made 864 most years since 2011 – that\u2019s a classification. Hyde Park we lease as well, and we\u2019re on the hunt for another vineyard, and some bare land – a green field site.<\/p>

WF<\/b>: Ok – that\u2019s exciting. Is there something that you\u2019d like to do?<\/p>

DB<\/b>: There\u2019s lots I\u2019d like to do. There\u2019s been lots of opportunities that have been lost. And that\u2019s just the way it goes. Winning an award last week has given me the King\u2019s ear! So all of a sudden I get a phone call from the CEO about various things, and what do we need? It\u2019s pretty clear – here\u2019s the list! It\u2019s a bit of \u201cWatch this space\u201d. We\u2019re good growers. There are six in the vineyard team – there\u2019s two in the winery team. Because that\u2019s where all the work needs to be done – we\u2019re just stopping things from getting messed up.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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For me, the whole genesis of it was when I came here, it was in a real state. And it was really about breaking it down. Nothing worked here. No equipment worked properly, but that allowed us to break it back to very simple methodology, and we\u2019ll find out what the best bits are. We landed on technique that was entirely reproducible, whether it was a warm or a cool season. We had ideas about having grapes in certain places that would give us a certain result. Hot vineyards versus cool vineyards. And if we don\u2019t need to do much in the way of amelioration. If that\u2019s the case, we\u2019re probably in the right spot.<\/p>

So these Upper Yarra vineyards started coming in with good flavour, moderate sugars and good acidities. And there was a lack of logic in some winemaking because that\u2019s what you got taught at University! To do stuff!\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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How about we do nothing?! And if we don\u2019t actually have to touch it – the pH is great, the acidity is great, the flavour is great, it\u2019s 13% alcohol. We\u2019ll leave it on its lees for the rest of the year and see what happens.<\/p>

When I started buying puncheons in 2003, I was the only person in Victoria buying puncheons. The only one. Every single place you go to now\u2026 I\u2019ve still got puncheons I use now from 2004. We refer to them as wine coffins. That\u2019s where wines go to die. But also, none of this is revolutionary. Although no-one was doing any of this stuff, it\u2019s actually not hard! And the wines taste better.<\/p>

WF<\/b>: Is there anything that you wouldn\u2019t do, if you look back on it?<\/p>

DB<\/b>: Yes, but not too many (laughs). There aren\u2019t too many. A bit of work with reds that I would change. We were probably trying too hard. I am a fairly strong believer in red wine having tannin. And Pinot Noir should have tannin as well. Maybe I\u2019m out of step with the fashion for lightness and bunches and fragrance – to a degree. So we worked a lot harder on trying to build structure in Pinot. And Yarra Cab, historically, was never more than medium-bodied. And we have worked them quite hard in the past to get as much out as possible. We possibly macerated them too long. Up to four to six weeks post-fermentation. If you see some of the twenty year old wines now, you\u2019ll think they\u2019re fantastic, but they certainly didn\u2019t grab anyone\u2019s attention when they were younger wines. We\u2019ve brought that back a bit. Let the wines be a bit more expansive than as straight-jacketed as we are with our whites. I think that\u2019s really had an effect.<\/p>

We\u2019ve also had a couple of good vintages! 2021 was difficult but we had really nice, dry, warm conditions at the back end – and, for Cab, it worked perfectly. 1995 was a vintage where it was really tricky right through March with Chardonnay and Pinot. We got into April and it was like a switch got hit, and we had monotonous weather for three and a half weeks – from 5 to 25 degrees and sunny every day. It was magic. Cab was clearly the best variety in 1995.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/b>: Going back to that idea of \u2018house style\u2019 – is that partly down to a high solids style of fermentation, or is there more to it than that?<\/p>

DB<\/b>: That solids ferment character, the reduction – is part of Chardonnay\u2019s DNA I reckon. Very turbid juice with a reasonable quantity of pressed material in there. You go to Burgundy and everything goes in – the works! We\u2019ve taken a non-sparkling winemakers approach, which is like \u201c550 litres per tonne – don\u2019t go more than that, because it\u2019s too phenolic!\u201d We actually want a bit of al dente phenolic. We want the wines to have structure. We want them to be toothsome.<\/p>

WF<\/b>: \u201cToothsome\u201d is a brilliant description!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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DB<\/b>: Those are the wines that are going to stand up at the table. They\u2019ve got flavour and they\u2019ve got texture, and they work with food. There\u2019s three bits to the whole thing, when it works. It\u2019s wine and there\u2019s food and there\u2019s people.<\/p>

WF<\/b>: Sometimes I\u2019m the sad case who is sitting at home, reviewing, at 11 o\u2019clock in the morning, trying to get a good sense of a wine – on my own, taking this tiny bit out of each bottle. It\u2019s hard!<\/p>

DB<\/b>: I wrote for Halliday for two years. It was a nightmare – horrible. We were doing Vintage and I was trying to write – reviewing a hundred wines a day. And there\u2019s so much work behind the logistics of it. There\u2019s so many horrible wines.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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We\u2019re in a different part of the industry and we\u2019re attempting to do something that\u2019s different as well. Trying to make the absolute best thing we can. Whereas the greater part of the industry – it\u2019s just a job. Grapes come in and they make it – there\u2019s a set of numbers. Hit the numbers. Hit the numbers. Hit the numbers. Go home.<\/p>

I haven\u2019t had a day off since the end of January, because you\u2019ve got to live it and breathe it, or you\u2019re not part of it. And this is where the little companies have done well historically in this country – because they live and breathe it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

People also bring up the false comparison to Burgundy up all the time. We\u2019re not trying to make Burgundy. We\u2019re trying to make Australian-flavoured, Yarra Valley-flavoured, Oakridge-flavoured wine. If someone reckons they can taste – identify – our whites, then Hallelujah! That\u2019s nailing the brief. Because then we are making an identity and it is reflecting that concept of terroir – the identity of where it is made.<\/p>

It\u2019s like the \u2018mint thing\u2019 in Australian circles. If there\u2019s any mint, then winemakers lose their minds. Mint is the worst thing that could ever happen. My philosophy on that is \u201cso what?\u201d Eucalyptus is the native tree variety in this country. It\u2019s part of the terroir of the place. Part of the taste of this land. You can get away with it in Shiraz it seems\u2026but Pinot Noir you can\u2019t! But people actually like mint. Why is toothpaste mint flavoured? They could pick any flavour they like. But they make it minty because people actually like it.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/b>: You shouldn\u2019t really be trying to hide anything? Why start looking to take stuff out? If it\u2019s mint today, then it will be something else tomorrow.<\/p>

DB<\/b>: And in so many ways we just lucked into this! A number of things have happened. 15-20 years ago a lot of guys in the Upper Yarra were struggling to find a home for fruit, because all of those vineyards were planted for sparkling wine. Chandon were taking some and Accolade were taking a lot. There\u2019s a certain vineyard up there that was recently sold, and Accolade have been trying to sell for a number of years – that Ed Carr rated as the best sparkling vineyard in mainland Australia. And yet pulled half of it out, and they weren\u2019t really doing anything with it. All these vineyards that Accolade had for sparkling wine, and were being cropped at 15 tonnes to the hectare – watering the crap out of them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Willow Lake is fifty years old next year, but had been abandoned by these bigger companies. I went up there and said \u201cWell let\u2019s crop it at this level, and this is how much I\u2019ll pay you, and let\u2019s go from there\u201d. Funder was all going to sparkling wine. Henk was all going to sparkling wine. Willow Lake was going to sparkling wine. We brought it in and we made great table wine. Got on top of the growing regime – got the crops down. Ideally we\u2019re looking at 6-7 tonnes, although we\u2019re lucky to get four tonne in the last few years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

And we haven\u2019t irrigated anything in four years. Irrigation is seen as a dirty word – seen as a bad thing, but it\u2019s actually not. When you\u2019re irrigating to try and get 15 tonnes per hectare, or thirty tonnes per hectare – commercial grape growing, then that\u2019s bad. But water is just a part of the air conditioning for the vines. Because we\u2019ve had a couple of those really fierce, hot seasons in the last ten years, we\u2019ve learnt how to cope with that. We\u2019ve been gearing towards those hotter seasons rather than cooler, wetter seasons, which has caught everyone out a bit.<\/p>

Back in 2007 we\u2019d had ten years of drought, with almost every month with rainfall below long-term averages. The dam down here in 2009 was empty. It holds three years of water for this vineyard. And it was empty. We managed to pump water out of the river – 6kms up here – after it rained for the first time in eight weeks, and kept part of the vineyard alive. So that water kept the leaves functioning. Irrigation in those hot years is essential. It can change really quickly.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Another thing we are doing is trying to pick the best out of the vineyards – picking in bands and picking a vineyard in, say, three sections. Over twenty-odd years we\u2019ve walked the vineyards and looking at it. In recent years we\u2019ve done infra-red and aerial work as well, which has basically reinforced what we thought.<\/p>

WF<\/b>: Are you a fan of whole bunch in your reds?<\/p>

DB<\/b>: Yes. (hesitates) I reckon it has been better in a lot of ways, longer term, in our Syrahs rather than Pinot. Particularly with a vineyard like Willow Lake where we\u2019re focused on purity of fruit rather than winemaking artefact. So a lot of de-stemming with that. More recently we have been using about 20% whole bunch with Henk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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And again, it\u2019s about having it there but it\u2019s not overwhelming. When I lost my vineyard, I managed to get hold of some Shiraz from a local grower, and fermented that 100% whole bunch, but it reached a stage where it was getting too thin and stalky. It was about halfway through fermentation, and I shovelled it out and put it through the de-stemmer, and put it back in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Ideally, even with Pinot, we\u2019re fermenting everything with 14 days on skins, and some years much longer than that. We hand pack everything and put it in the cool room overnight and deal with it the next day. It gives us control over what we\u2019re doing. We\u2019ve moved over to optically sorting now this year, as well as the new de-stemmer we got last year. A couple of bits of modern equipment are changing the style of our wines slightly.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The vineyard wines are the driver in the market for us. The acceptance of tannic Pinot Noir is generally with people, I suppose, who drink Burgundy. When you taste 864 Pinot, there\u2019s a lot more structure and firmness to it, because, if you like, it\u2019s much more of that Grand Cru model, where it is built for the long haul.<\/p>

WF<\/b>: What wines do you like to drink?<\/p>

DB<\/b>: I drink a lot of Beaujolais. I worked in Beaujolais in 1995 and really loved the wines, because they\u2019ve got that style and substance about them – Cru Beaujolais. And they are affordable as well. One particular producer – Daniel Bouland – I buy boxes and boxes every year. And we probably drink more Pinot at home than anything else.<\/p>

One thing that we\u2019re doing here – is it\u2019s a giant scientific experiment where we get to test it on the human population. Legally. If we can break the techniques down and take all of those variables out, then we stand to actually learn something. Funder is a really good example, where it is three blocks of Chardonnay, and are quite different. When you taste the wine, and walk around the vineyard and see the plants and how they\u2019re growing, it all makes sense. And that\u2019s all we\u2019ve been trying to do. Make sense of it all.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the days before I arrived in the Yarra Valley, one winery from the area received an award from \u2018The Real Review\u2019 as their \u2018Winery of the Year\u2019. 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