About The Vineyard
The grapes used to make our quality wines are sourced from our estate owned and managed vineyards.
Our premium Coonawarra vineyard lovingly named the 'Home Block' is a single, two-hectare vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon, which surrounds the Tocaciu family home.
“The first vines were planted around our home in the seventies. The quality of this fruit was fantastic, which lead to additional vines being planted in the eighties.”– Pat Tocaciu
The Home Block vineyard’s 3406 vines are low yielding, producing between one and two kilograms of fruit per vine, which results in 300 to 700 dozen bottles.
In 2011 we purchased another Coonawarra vineyard to ensure we had access to additional volumes of premium cool climate fruit. This vineyard is currently planted with 3.5 ha of Riesling, 10 ha of Sauvignon Blanc and a 17.5 ha of the varietal synonymous with Coonawarra - Cabernet Sauvignon!
The growing conditions in both Coonawarra and Wrattonbully are ideal for producing wine of exceptional character, quality and longevity. The cool climate combined with an exceptionally long ripeing period allows for balanced acids in the grapes and gentle fruit flavour development.
Our Wrattonbully vineyards feature almost 55 hectares of vines containing three white and three red varieties. The stalactite and stalagmite calcite formations together with rich fossil beds belonging to the world heritage-listed caves lie beneath the vineyard – and serve as the foundations for its fertile soils and unique characteristics.
A natural compost is also applied to all vineyards, using aged compost made from cow and sheep manure, grape seeds, skins, stalks and canes.
All of our vineyards are independently audited annually as part of a quality assurance wine / grape growing programme incorporating HACCP and ISO standards. The vines continue to produce high quality fruit year after year, which is a credit to our team and the methods we employ.
