The Geese of Glenguin

Glenguin is a gaelic word meaning “Valley of the wild geese” and is of interest for two reasons. First up we have an amazing family at Glenguin who have survived years of fox predation. The geese were down from 14 to a low of 4 with only a single female. They are currently back up to 7 with 2 more girls and thriving as Klaus’ photo above clearly shows. The second photo is the island refuge that the geese call home. It’s a pretty unusual feature for a vineyard dam and is also home to trees that we planted.

Secondly Glenguin is the original name of the Glengoyne whisky distillery where my great grandfather was the excise man (or guager in Scottish!) and my grandfather was actually born in 1890. My great grandad later becoming head of customs and excise and was in charge of writing the rules which govern the production of fine malt whisky to this day. At Glenguin we are continuing a long standing family tradition of working with booze, but with wine not whisky.

Tannat and the curious case of the sandstone shelf

We’re getting more and more enquiries about our Tannat these days as it really is pretty unique around these parts. On Twitter today it was great to see the comment from Stuart Knox at Fix St James about our Tannat being a great example of ‘terroir’, tasting of ‘pure Hunter’. We’re lucky enough to have a really good vineyard site for growing this variety. And there are few people that know the site as well as Klaus. Here are his thoughts: 

“Our 2.6 acres of Tannat live on sandy loam with large pieces of sandstone, ironstone and petrified wood in the soil profile. Between 1 and 2 metres beneath the soil there is a sandstone shelf over the whole 2.6 acres which runs down to our main dam (see the picture below: sandstone shelf exposed, with Tannat vineyard in background). This sandstone shelf has a lot of petrified wood and ferns in it, which can be seen from the edge of the dam. The shelf naturally limits vigour and tonnage in the Tannat.”

Here’s an example of that petrified wood in the soil:

What does frost do and how do we approach it?

After a week of very low temperatures (down to -6 degrees Celsius one night) and some great photos from Klaus showing a white Glenguin, I thought a few words on vines and frost might be interesting. So here goes:

1. The vines are in winter dormancy, having a rest and are not damaged by frost at this time.
2. Frosts in spring are bad news. Indeed in 2001 a “hanging” frost in early September killed all the Semillon green shoots.
3. In 2001 we lost all the Semillon crop and the frost damage was so severe that some vines whose trunks had split had to be cut close to the ground and retrained back to the wire. Backbreaking work…
4. In spring the damage occurs when the rising sap freezes, causing the cell walls to rupture. This damages shoots, leaves, buds and even vascular tissue.
5. There are 2 main frost types. Radiation frost occurs on clear still nights, with low humidity. Rapid heat loss from the ground results in an inversion layer of cold air that may extend 10-20m above the ground.
6. Advection frosts occur when wind chill causes temperatures at the vine surface to fall. This usually occurs when a cold mass of air moves up from Antarctica.
7. In order to minimise risk at Glenguin we use a high trellis and hard cane pruning to minimise damage. We do not use any sprays, fans, oil burners or helicopters as a sustainablility practising vineyard.
8. This means we are at danger from frost and sometimes it reduces yields and damages vines. Wine is a natural agricultural product and sometimes we suffer the consequences.

What’s happening in the vineyard?

 

Last week saw some really big frosts with the mercury getting down to 4 degrees below zero. And a sight that we always love to see – the dam is full! Klaus has been out pruning and in the picture below you can see our cane pruned Shiraz. Gloves were on and pruners came out for the Semillon as well.

Next week sees Klaus getting in to train the Busby Semillon before removing the Chardonnay arms off the wires where the grafts are.

“This week at Glenguin Estate has been realy cold; frosty mornings with great clear days. Can’t wait for the sun to warm the vineyard up in the mornings as the wires and vines leave my hands wet and cold. By 10am it’s usually warm enough to take the jumpers off though. Cockatoos have attempted to play in the vineyard and been moved on as they cause a lot of damage to pruned vines by chewing on buds left for new shoots in the spring,” said Klaus.

Why I chose to become a vigneron

In January 1979 on my first visit to the Hunter I encountered several wines that really made an impression. Semillons that when in their first flush of youth were mouthwateringly refreshing with their citrus fruit characters, became delicious honeyed wines similar to top white burgundy after a decade or so in bottle. Shirazes that had that elusive combination in the world of wine; a clear sense of place or regional character with a distinctly complex vinosity. These were real wines, not simply fruity alcoholic drinks like so much wine was then and is even more so today. Over the next 15 years I toiled long hours in the finance world so that our family could participate in the Hunter tradition. In 1993 on Bruce Tyrell’s advice we purchased the property at Broke now home to all of our vines except for a small 50 year old plot in Pokolbin.

After 16 years of grapegrowing and 14 of winemaking I remain committed to the belief that in the Hunter it is possible to produce well balanced wines of real character and charm that are clearly “redolent of place”. They are undoubtedly from “somewhere”, displaying the characters the French call “Terroir” perhaps more clearly than any other Australian wine region. When you combine this with the fact that as a percentage of total Australian wine produced, that made from grapes GROWN in the Hunter make up less than 2%, you could be forgiven for expecting Hunter wines to be the most expensive and the most sought after in the marketplace.

Glenguin produces wines in the classic Hunter mould. The Ironbark Tannat for example is from a unique site of only 4 acres of gravel on a north  east facing slope. Yields are at Grand Cru levels in Burgundy and there are only 200 cases made, yet the price is less than one tenth that of GC Burgundy!