by admin | Apr 4, 2022 | Bindi News
The 2021-2022 season has become one of the most memorable of our 32 cropping years since the vineyard began in 1988. An incredibly wet winter flowed, literally, into an incredibly wet spring which then ran into a very wet summer. Challenging!
Pleasingly there have been bursts of dry and brightness as the green vines have progressed their small crops to ripeness. Mid April will the see the harvest in full swing. Some blocks have rather meagre crops, others are more prolific and hopefully overall the volumes are reasonable. Pleasingly we have ‘banked’ some outstanding Heathcote Shiraz and Grenache in barrel and we have another project commencing early April under the Dhillon label; Riesling, Chardonnay and Rosé from the Macedon Ranges.
Excitingly, another wine release looms. We shall begin releasing some of the outstanding 2021 wines in late April, early May. The 2021 season was quite mild and was upgraded incredibly by two of the most outstanding ‘finishing’ weeks in Bindi history. The last week of March and the first week of April 2021 were truly golden times for elevating our quality to equal the best of anything done before.
by admin | Aug 18, 2021 | Bindi News
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From wide to close, our pinot journey.
It’s a nice nostalgia to reflect on the explorative days in 2010 and 2011 as plans were made to establish the Darshan and Block 8 sites, for an evolution from our 1988 commencement plantings at 2,500 vines per hectare to 11,000+. Whoosh….time flies! It’s a sadness that founding Father Bill (Darshan) isn’t here to enjoy the results of those discussions and decisions; we are farming relationships with family and friends as much as we are farming vines for wines.
In 2010 an enlightening visit to the adventurous Erinn Klein at the Adelaide Hills winery Ngeringa was made to discuss closer planting and its management. Erinn showed me his narrow German Niko ‘tractor’. Erinn imported (as far as I know) the first narrow track machine to Australia in 2004. At this exploratory time the successfully established Victorian references we used were Bannockburn (1.2 meter rows in the 1986 Serre vineyard) and Bass Philip (1979, 9,000 to 17,000 vines per hectare). Visiting Bass Phillip often in 1991-1993 was confounding and inspiring for the vineyard was provocatively closer and lower than most (and Philip is an engaging and idiosyncratic character!).
It’s true that less intensively planted, carefully farmed vines on a fabulous site will produce superior wine to intensively farmed vines on a lesser site. Having vision is necessary, but having site is fundamental. There are many great wines made around the world from varying planting densities. The vineyard site is absolutely the key and thereafter appropriate vineyard configuration and farming maximise the potential. For example, the wide rows of Hill of Grace will make superior wine to a 10,000 vine per hectare vineyard on a poorer site nearby. And, within reason, vineyard site trumps expenditure; the most intensively and obsessively farmed flat land Bourgogne Rouge will not be as good as a merely well farmed Grand Cru half way up the hill. Hence established greats like Hill of Grace and Richebourg honour site first and vision second. This is the nature of ‘Terroir’.
Hands on and back bending learnings came from picking and pruning in Champagne in 1994 with Delphine Vesselle in Bouzy. Further education came from visiting 25 other small grower Champagne producers at that time. Seeing how closely planted vines were farmed (and wines made) during an inspiring 50 Domaine tour in Burgundy in January 1995 provided many ‘light bulb’ moments that could not and would not be ignored. It goes back even further though, to the late 1980s in fact, to Stuart Anderson (ex Balgownie) and Ann and John Ellis (Hanging Rock). Stuart had done 20 or so vintages in France in the vineyards of Burgundy and Bordeaux and spoke inspiringly and encouragingly about their ways of farming when I began helping him in 1991 making Pinot Noir. In the 1970s and 1980s Stuart was also involved in importing wines grown this way from many of the great small producers of France. What he had and what he knew from making, buying and selling he shared generously with us and the local Macedon Ranges vignerons. At this time Ann and John had planted at 2m x 1m (after toying with the idea of an over the row tractor for farming at 1m x 1m but opted to stay wider) and they discussed the benchmarks and logic for intensively farmed vines.
In recent years there’s been inspiring and excitingly adventurous progress. In our region the Coopers at Cobaw Ridge (wide rows established in 1985 and a reference for us in our early days) went closer first with their 2011 Pinot planting of 1.2m wide rows. At home our Bindi tribute Darshan was planted in 2014 (11k to 22k Ha) and Block 8 in 2016 (11k to 22k), which also coincided with the 2016 Ten Minutes by Tractor commencement in Mornington of their dense (12k) adventure. Dwarfing these is the grand vision of the Sandro Mosel led Mornington Peninsula project with 120,000 vines at 11,111 per hectare! Viticulturist Tim Brown (starting with his father in 1988, now starting his own intensive project at Taradale in the Macedon Ranges and working with Bindi since 2005) has been a godsend, drawing on 30+ years of viticultural work and thought. A lot has changed in Victoria in this decade of increased density; there are many more Nikos on the ground and on the way. Excitingly, there are four new projects in our region that are soon to be planted (Drummond, Taradale, Bullengarook and Trentham) with their own interpretations of close on intriguing, diverse sites. The more the merrier, for we all benefit and share as the sum of the parts combine for the greater good (the rising tide lifts all boats).
So what have we learned? A lot. It takes visits and tastings to do explanations justice and enjoyably there’s been quite a bit of that going on (pre and between lockdowns!). Realistically, we observe and accept that there have been many compromises along the way and that the endeavour cannot be one of perfection; our vineyards are a pragmatic pursuit of passion. Installing irrigation is (of course) a compromise, one we comfortably made and sometimes use (though, interestingly and encouragingly, less frequent in the closer plantings). Tilling under-vine is a compromise and is abhorred by some (but we quite like it and, well, it’s softer than herbicide). Sometimes we choose to crop thin, though not in the last three years (to ensure yields of less than 500 grams per vine), we trim extra long shoots and we spray the canopy with sulphur and (heavy metal (toxic?)) copper (which are permissible organic inputs). We have (now three times in 17 seasons) used the systemic foliar spray Ridomil to reduce copper use in order to prevent devastating pre fruit set crop loss in the face of severe downy mildew pressure. We are striving in our own ways for soil and vine health. Opening the soil, composting, manure preparations, seaweed emulsions, 17 seasons of no herbicide and no systemic pesticide, observing increased life in, and friability of, the soils, shoot thinning and more are all leading to healthy vines and wines. The compromises are honest but fewer, some are comfortable, some uncomfortable.
Now we get to line up six individual Bindi Pinots which tell personal stories. In the higher density vineyards we are seeing balanced vines growing very closely, impressive root depth and spread, early and deep lignification of canes and stems, smaller bunches and berries and less moisture stress. In the wines we are witnessing increasing complexity and mouthfeel with strong site expression. This is all very exciting and rewarding. It’s still early days but we are now within two years for the release of the Darshan and Block 8 wines, having made vintages 2017 to 2021. Satisfyingly, there really is now something meaningful to taste and discuss. There’s a decade of treading the sentimental path, from the days we walked and imagined these new sites when kicking the Bindi stones in 2010 and surveying the soils in the winter of 2011 which confirmed their strong connections to the adjacent Block 5 and Quartz vineyards.
Here’s to the varied vine growers of many places being determined enough to give it a go and who graciously contribute to that rising tide that is lifting all boats. Each will imaginatively make their own interpretations of row width, trellis height and vine structure, irrigation, soil management, crop loads and winemaking. When all that is said and done, as the notion of terroir (of somewhereness) dictates, it will be the quality of each site and the year on year consistency of its delicious wines that provides the pleasure in the glass.
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by admin | May 28, 2021 | Bindi News
We were very keen for rebounds of many kinds. The angst and grind of 2020 surely couldn’t remain shackled to us so far into 2021? Despite the wet spring and summer, the 2021 viticultural season ended incredibly kindly; amazing finishing warmth that concentrated the flavours and sugars while preserving the acidities. The amazing finish, the equal of any wonderful weather experienced over our preceding 30 vintages, capitalized on all the work done to keep the canopy open and the crop clean and the fabulously intense and ripe fruit was harvested in perfect weather conditions. The ferments have gone cleanly and smoothly and the wines are ticking along doing some malo-lactic in barrel. The push and pull, the rush and drive from September to April has its reward and the line up of barrels in the cellar is the equal or better of any season gone before. Who’d have thought this in mid March?!! A simple summary; we worked hard through spring and summer for two fine and final brilliant weeks to make the vintage. This remarkable 2021 vintage reminds us to stay patient and hopeful ‘cos it’s not over until it’s over!
by admin | Sep 3, 2020 | Bindi News
This is the summary from my presentation to the Victorian Pinot Noir Workshop in November 2019 detailing the establishment of our Darshan high density vineyard. It is sourced from these photos and records documenting and explaining the nature of the works.
Pictured is a bloody big bulldozer, but this Cat had no idea…….
You really would think that when driving a powerful D6 dozer the driver would know exactly where they were headed before the gripping and ripping began. But on this day this Cat was all over this park….all over the Darshan vineyard site. To the operator’s defence, this was the first time he’d deep ripped such narrow vineyard sites. After much head scratching and cursing the driver, vineyard surveyor and technology agent eventually got their collective minds around the software alignment and the big Cat got purring. That day they burned plenty of their time and diesel and they burned a lot of our money!
The big Cat was here in May 2013 as we established the Darshan site by deep ripping twice to a depth of 1m for 1.1m wide rows for 11,000+ vines per hectare. After working in vineyards and making vintages in Europe in the 1990s it could be perceived that these new Bindi works were based on those inspiring experiences and places, and in part they were. With domestic pride and no cultural cringe, it is important to understand the establishment practices commenced in 2012 and implemented through 2013 to 2016 were fundamentally local. There was no specialised equipment or imported technique used to establish the vines until the third season, which then saw different equipment doing similar work to that already being done in the wide rows. How parochial, Oi, Oi Oi!
This explanation of establishment practices is not a DIY user guide (though it could be a starting point) but a documentation of the plans, timing and practical works undertaken to get to the crop of 2017.
In 2013 it was dry end to the summer and the D6 was able to fracture and open the ground to prepare the site. This opening of the soil at significant depth was a continuation and bettering of the establishment practices starting with the 1988 Original Vineyard through to the 2001 Kaye. It literally set the ground work in place to give the vines the best start possible. This work required more accuracy than we had previously implemented and the set up of the technology was of great importance. Ripping in this narrower way had quite a different effect compared to those 1988 rows which are 3m wide. With rows just 1.1m wide this ripping created a more consistent underground landscape as the deep fracturing occurred very close together.
This site was surveyed in 2012 with magnetic imaging then explorative pits were excavated to confirm their relationship with the existing plantings. The findings of this work were in clear evidence by the roar of the dozer and the billowing plumes as the ripping hit areas containing resistant quartz and sandstone outcrops. In contrast, the softer volcanic and clay areas allowed the D6 to complete its work more gently. It was fascinating to watch a bulldozer tell of terroir. It might sound a bit like earthy overkill but having established vines in these soils over the decades it was known that the site benefits greatly from opening for ease of deep and rapid root development. The deeper the roots the less hydric stress, giving the vines a head start by taking the time.
A D6 is a bloody big beast to have crawling and compacting over your precious vineyard site. In 2008, during the Global Financial Crisis, the government was offering significant depreciation write offs so, with these new plantings in mind, we purchased the Fix Rehabilitator plough. It is fabricated outside nearby Daylesford in a rustic shed by the creative engineer Mike Fix and the design was influenced by Alex Podolinsky, father of Bio Dynamics in Australia. Darshan had soil conditioner prepared BD500 and compost applied three times prior to planting. The plough aerates the ground exceptionally well down to 600mm and incorporates organic matter. The Rehabilitator produces worked ground that sits higher than the surrounding unworked area as the soil has been aerated and lifted. It’s quite a wonderful tool that was used several times over 18 months to work the soil before planting.
In very wet winters and, more particularly, in wet springs the ground can be prone to waterlogging so in the 1988 plantings underground agi-drains were retro-trenched to pick up the excess water at the sodic clay layer, about 700mm down. Vines don’t enjoy ‘wet feet’ and the saturated ground deters deeper root development. Having learned from those previous works in similar soils, in the new block three equidistant 1m deep trenches were dug falling across the contour and filled with agi-drains and scoria. They collect the excess water and run to pits outside the vineyard where we can observe their effectiveness. They are running now after this particularly damp winter. In such a narrow vineyard this had to be done pre planting.
Clonal selection is of fundamental importance as there are many fabulous small berry and intensely flavoured clones but also there are some lower quality simple clones of Pinot Noir. The Darshan clonal mix was determined in 2012 and nods to old Australia with the focus on MV6, a clone believed to have come to Australia in 1831 with James Busby (it’s about as Australian as it gets when it comes to vine material). MV6 has proven to be an excellent clone for small bunches and small berries and both Block 5 and Original Vineyard are 100% MV6. After success in the 2001 Kaye vineyard there was a proven confidence with the more recent arrival Dijon 115 clone. What else to plant? From the Pinot Noir Workshop’s blind tastings of southern Victorian producers a belief formed as to the value of clones 777, Pommard and Abel. In Darshan we went with Pommard and 777 then added some Abel into the next planting, Block 8. The Darshan ratio is 50% MV6 with 115, 777 and Pommard in equal proportions.
Ah, the vexed question of irrigation! Over the years we have fine tuned irrigation and fertigation with soil moisture logging adding increasing strategy to our applications; we had no hesitation establishing the vines with irrigation installed. High Density vineyards have a greater ability for the whole vineyard profile to be drip irrigated as the rows are so close. The water meets up mid row beneath the surface so there is equal encouragement for root dispersion, particularly in friable soil. Establishing the vines in this environment in 2014 helped them explore down quite quickly. We were then able to target specific depths as we monitored the root develop. This was particularly significant work in the first couple of years and today, after four years of consistent crops and further root development, it is of less relevance but remains an important tool. Pleasingly, with closer rows comes more summer soil shading and wind buffering and with small crops per plant Darshan requires less irrigation.
Baring your soul and baring your soil; the young vineyard was worked for bare earth quite vigorously to remove competition from the establishing vines. Under older vines we like to see various plants growing for periods outside of spring but in new plantings we work hard to keep competition at bay to allow the shallow rooted vines the chance to establish strongly. The weed work was done by hand and rotary hoe; Darshan was established for several years by manual grind (backpack spraying). The stand-up-backwards-ploughing Niko track machine was purchased for our first cropping season, 2017 (this was the first time new equipment or practices were used in Darshan). During these establishment years of hard labour our undervine cultivation works were fine tuned in the older wider plantings using the Braun knife and disc on the old farm tractor. Cutting the soil and superficial roots and turning the soil over proved to be a slow but effective undervine management practice which was then incorporated into Darshan. After trialling straw mulch then undervine mowing, from 2005 to 2012, the old vineyards responded well to the cutting and turning so it was with confidence the knife and disc method began in the narrow rows in the 2016/17 season.
The rapid root development was mimicked by the canopy with excellent and consistent growth that required frequent copper and sulphur spraying to keep the establishing vines in leaf for as long as possible to in turn drive the roots to explore deeper. At establishment in 1988 the training wheels were firmly on and the posts had too few foliage wires and minimal clip positions. As time went by a much more intensive practice with significantly more clips and wires for training the foliage in a more detailed way was adopted. This system was used in the new plantings and managed the impressive growth in the narrow environment to encourage a thin and airy canopy that is less prone to mildews and botrytis.
The Darshan and Block 8 plantings were able to be committed to with confidence having proved the case by establishing vineyards and growing and making of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir of well received quality for 25 years. It would have been impossible for us to confidently dive into density without this belief from the basis of proven quality and farming practices. There is ground work and there is groundwork. The decades before of wine community shared learnings and experiences gave ballast from which we could comfortably experiment. We now look forward to the market embracing the outcome in 2022, ten years after the surveying and digging and ripping and……..
Darshan is a personal vineyard and label for Dad, and for us. He used to counsel that getting the most basic things right first is the key; open soil, water, nutrients, lack of weed competition and healthy leaves. Another encouragement of his was patience; the establishment of a vineyard is not when it’s planted, the methodical works done before are fundamentally important.
The labels don’t reference high density or these establishment practicalities. As the family of labels has done for decades, they focus on the uniqueness of site and the special people who have inspired these wines.
I shouldn’t be excessively patriotic. Darshan is an Indian name for a wine made from a French variety. It is processed with Italian winemaking equipment then matured in French barrels. It comes from ancient First Nation’s land managed for 40,000 years. The vines are farmed by Australians of various descent (Indian, British and Vietnamese) utilising Japanese, American, French, Australian and German equipment. The lucky country, the lucky land, is multicultural Australia.
by admin | Apr 17, 2020 | Bindi News
The ride was long and radical. When we thought ‘this season has had it all’ it gave some more, and what more it gave!
The early winter rains were a blessing and the soil saturated and the dams overflowed, as did our level of satisfaction. Then things dried out. Spring was dramatically dry and cold and then turned nastily windy, hot and dry. The countryside suffered. With the dry and cold of early spring came frightening freezes and hard frosts that damaged the new shoots. Here we go we said. The fruit set was disrupted by winds and wildly swinging weather and the crop was further reduced. The summer was so severe, the countryside so vulnerable, the mood was glum and our concerns went well beyond our own crops. Our colleagues and countryfolk and the fauna and flora of many states were scorched and tormented by smoke and fire in unimaginable ways.
Then things turned, and then they turned again.
From the middle of summer, the middle of January, the rains came. The mild weather made for smiles for the season, brows softened and stock was taken. The vines took this relief and freshened as the countryside flourished a remarkable green brightness. The mushrooms sprang and the fragile crop and rebounding vines suddenly became a concern; humidity, spores and mould, delays in ripening, where was it all headed? The maturity of the fruit was slow and long, ambling past March into the fast fracturing of health and economy as we moved from the burning then the rains to the shutdown of the pandemic. Unimaginable.
So, starting early April, under the umbrella of distancing, the careful crop clipping and wary winery work went on and the crop came in. This fruit that carries these remarkable twists and turns, barely half a crop, now ferments calmly in isolation, save for some careful tending by a skeleton crew cautious of becoming so.
Twenty 20 has barely got going but there is already so much size and shape to the story. The juices and wines have much character and depth. Some are quite beautifully harmonious and well structured. Yet, however they actually taste, we will pour so much of what we have personally and collectively gathered into our emotions and thoughts when we drink them and reflect on……well, a season that’s hardly 20/20.
