Vineyard and Olive Grove

Our Vineyard

Situated on the highest, north facing slope of our property, our shiraz vines grow in well drained red gravel soils and enjoy abundant sunshine. The climate is typically Mediterranean with cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers. With little likelihood of rain in summer and the cool nights during the ripening period of February and March, ripening is slow and the fruit flavours are concentrated.

We have recently grafted viognier buds onto 4 shiraz rows to allow us to produce a distinctive white viognier wine and a shiraz viognier.

In March, when we are sure the grapes have reached their optimum ripeness, we hand pick the bunches and carefully transfer them into large bins . These bins are transported immediately to our winemaker, Alon Arbel of Bella Ridge Estate in the Swan valley, 20 minutes from the vineyard. We are thrilled to have such a well respected, award winning winemaker making our wine. As Alon has said, if you have good grapes you are well on the way to having great wine!

Our Olives

We have a variety of olive trees including the Italian favourites Frantoio, Leccino and Pendolino,the Spanish variety Picual and Hardy’s Mammoth which is used as a pollinator. This mix allows easier grove management as the varieties mature at different times ensuring we can hand-pick the olives at the optimum time. In addition, the different varieties enable us to blend the oils or produce individual styles depending on yield and demand.

Our Olive Awards

Our award winning extra virgin olive oils have only been marketed since 2007. Already we have proved to be successful in producing top quality balanced, healthy, fruity Australian extra virgin olive oil. Recognition at the National Extra Virgin Olive Oil Show in our first year of entry is evidence of our achievement and sets a high benchmark to maintain. Our variety of olives and enjoyment from our efforts will help us continue to exceed.

We are very proud that all our oils have been recognized at the highest level!

Grove Management

The olive grove demands constant attention throughout the year.

Pruning is important to allow air movement between the branches and so reduce the risk of disease while increasing fruit production. It is mainly done in September but can continue throughout the year. The tree prunings are chipped and left around the olive trees to help keep down the weeds and maintain moisture.

To help enrich the soil and maintain moisture, we grow an improved pasture of mainly clover between the olive rows. The pasture is slashed and allowed to decompose to help enrich the soil.

With our hot, dry summer, the olive trees are irrigated using a drip system with water from a controlled balance of bore water, springfed dam water and rainwater tank to ensure salinity is kept in check.

We now allow a small flock of sheep to graze in the grove in the spring/ summer period thus keeping the pasture down and fertilizing the ground with their manure.

Harvesting and Processing

Harvest time varies according to the variety and even location within the grove but is normally between May and mid – June. The olives are picked using a raking technique with small, hand- held rakes allowing the olives to fall onto large matting around the base of the tree.

The olives are transferred to large bins for transport to the processing plant in York within 24 hours of harvesting. This is important to ensure quality fresh balanced extra virgin olive oil.

After processing our oil is taste tested for balance of flavour, bitterness and pungency (all essential for EVOO ) and then tested to ensure the free fatty acid level is below 0.8% and to check other qualities ( also essential for EVOO ).