About
Our first release of wines has arrived. The 2007 reds and a 2008 Riesling. We have produced a shiraz from our vineyard at Seppeltsfield under our Shobbrook Wines label that is matched with a 2008 riesling from Eden Valley.
Our Second label is Tommy Ruff. This is a great marriage of two wonderful varieties, shiraz and mourvedre.
Our vineyard is in the western Barossa at Seppeltsfield managed and run by my parents Al and Shobby. The vineyard 10 hectares has been run using traditional farming methods since planting in 1998. Shobby has been using organic nutrients and fertilizers but weeds have been a problem. We have just purchased a Braun undervine weeder (see attached photos) and are working with it now over the whole farm. We plan to be working solely with biodynamics in the next season.
Emma and I moved back to the valley in January 2007 after spending the past 8 years traveling and working overseas.
After finishing a degree in visual and applied arts in Adelaide Emma headed off to America to work with young kids at French Woods Festival summer camp in Upstate New York. Emma had only planned on going for one year but stayed for 5.
In 2000 I headed off to italy for a quick 2 month vintage. That quick 2 month vintage turned into a 6 year stay in the hills of Chianti Classico, working for a small organic winery called Riecine. Sean taught me a lot about growing cool climate sangiovese and what work needed to be done in the vineyard to make our job in the cellar effortless. If you produce 1st quality grapes you can only make 2 types of wine, great and not so great. We were looking for great wine............thats why we moved to biodynamics.
We are still learning and always will be. As a farmer you need to adjust to changing conditions and for us now here in the Barossa the conditions are changing rapidly. Through biodynamics we aim to produce the best fruit we can too make the great wines we seek, while rebuilding our soils for generations to come.
A new cottage for a new year
Well while the winter was cold we made it through. Spring has past and we are well amongst the summer sun.. We have had a few warm days of over 42 degrees C. The vines have handled it well. We have given them a drink or three and they have responded well. Dad has done a great job this yeaar so far but we won't start counting our berries until there in the tanks. We have done some trials with our new braun undervine weeder and are very happy. I have weeded about 6 acres this year with the weeder and hope to double or even tripple this next year. I have put 500 out on the home block 3 times this year and continue my studies into biodynamics. As part of my continued studies into biodynamics we have decided to move to a small cottage (mully grub cottage), built in the adelaide hills by a waldorf student (Hamish Banks) as part of his year 12 project. It comes complete with pizza oven and outside bath. I will begin work on the first of Febuary for a small biodynamic producer where i will work in a vineyard growing grapes, in the cellar making wine, in the olive grove picking olives and in the paddocks talking with the cows and cutting hay for there lunch. Emma and i are both very excited about the move but will continue to take care of our property in Ebenezer, and the vineyard in seppeltsfield using biodynamics. We are still in the early stages of conversion at the property in seppeltsfield. I have given the project ot total conversion a time line of 10 years. we are well on our way with 9 to go........... OHHHHH the wines. The rose looks wonderful. No added acid, no added sugar just grape juice and a bit of sulphur. We will bottle this early next week. I can't wait to start drinking this wine. The reds on the other hand are in barrel waiting to be tasted for the first time after finishing malo and topping. This will be a job i am most anxious about.. We will make our first white this year with the first riesling coming into the cellar. The fruit is sourced from an elderly vineyard in the eden valley region. Considered a cooler climate than the barossa valley, eden valley producers some worthy rieslings. You will just have to wait and see. We will also pick some shiraz from the same region as well as a bit of grenache and mataro from ebenezer. Oh and not forgetting the fruit we pick from our shiraz vineyard at seppeltsfield. We will produce some interesting wines this year if mother nature looks after us. And a quick story from the garden. Emma planted 16 zucchini plants this year and we ende up with 6 pumpkin plants and 1 beautiful zucchini plant. Lucky because if they had all survived the earwigs i would look like a zucchini by now. Until the next little snippet keep growing or maturing if your sitting in a barrel......
