Our Terre à Terre vineyard in Wrattonbully is celebrating its 10 anniversary this year. What was once a bare piece of grazing land south east of Naracoorte, just next door to Tapanappa’s Whalebone Vineyard, is now an 8-hectare close-spaced (1.5m x 1.5m), low trellised (50cm above ground) single vineyard.
This 8-hectare block had caught the eye of a lot of winemakers travelling down the Struan-Joanna Road, and even attracted the attention of some Bordeaux winemakers. However, I was lucky enough to be able to purchase it in March 2003, on my way back to France from Chile, after a failed attempt to cross the Ice Cap in Chilean Patagonia – a trip ruined by the very heavy rains caused by the 2002-2003 moderate El Niño event. This event was also responsible for the drought pattern seen in South Eastern Australia at that time and so I discovered from very early on the extreme impacts of the strong weather patterns of the Southern Hemisphere.
The first works on the new vineyard were carried out in 2004. As the ground was being ripped to prepare for planting 2 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon and 2 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc, the tractor wheels got stuck in a hole that unveiled the entrance of a previously undiscovered cave. This cave spreads under both the Terre à Terre and Whalebone vineyards and contains the fossilized remains of some of Australia’s ancient mega fauna, including an ancient whale, whose ribs can be seen protruding from the walls.
Further plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon (1 hectare in 2005), Shiraz (1 hectare in 2008), Cabernet Franc (1 hectare in 2008) and Sauvignon Blanc (1 hectare in 2013) followed over the next few years, and were done to the same close spacing design, using the appropriate rootstocks and clones.
In terms of winemaking, we have always tried to emulate the non-interventionist winemaking techniques used by some of our favourite top producers in France:
our Terre à Terre Sauvignon Blanc is fermented in demi-muids (the format used by the likes of Pascal Cotat and Laurent Vaillé for their whites),
our Down to Earth Sauvignon Blanc is fermented in tank with some time on lees after the end of fermentation (which is the commonly used in new Zealand and France),
our very high tannin reds (Cabernet Sauvignon and red blends) are partly aged in 4,000L Foudres similar to the botes used in Barolo or Barbaresco.
The climate in Wrattonbully has proven to be ideal for all of the varieties planted. The warmer than average 2008 and 2010 vintages have produced some excellent and balanced wines for relatively young vines. The 2012 vintage was the first vintage to deliver more flavours and elegance for the whites, and more fruit, structure and tannins for the reds, and it is with great satisfaction that we see the vineyard producing even better wines with the 2013 vintage. We are confident that as the years roll on we will see some truly wonderful wines emerge from this very special terroir.
