Australia's Smallest Vineyard and Winery at Moama
The 2009 season proved to be one of the most difficult since I have been up here. We had a relatively cool start to the season followed by Black Saturday with 47 oC and 70 knot Northly winds. This cooked most of the fruit and resulted in very poor yeilds. I sent them to the Perth Royal Show and the National Amateur wine show in Adelaide for judging.
At the National Amateur show in Adelaide I won 1 Silver and 2 Bronze medals. The results were:
2009 Moama Shiraz - Silver Medal.
2009 Perricoota Pinot Gris - Bronze Medal.
2009 Moama Chenin Blanc - Bronze Medal.
In 2008 I did pretty well too.
2007 wasn't bad either.
2006 was excellent.
I entered 8 wines this year in the Perth Show and won 6 medals. The most disappointing thing was that the Moama Shiraz didn't win a medal. I regard this as the best red I have ever made.
The other results were: 2009 Moama Chenin Blanc - Silver Medal
2009 Perricoota Carbernet - Silver Medal2009 Perricoota Sauvignon Blanc - Bronze medal
2005 Perricoota Chardonnay - Bronze Medal
2009 Perricoota Petit Verdot - Bronze Medal
2009 Perricoota Pinot Gris - Bronze Medal
The walls are filling up.
I've run out of space.
But where did it all start?
In 1996 I purchased a 3/4 acre block in Moama to build a retirement house and grow a few grapes to make wine.
The vines were planted in 1999 after the house was finished.
Here is what they look like today. The Moama vines were originally grown on a "Scott Henry" trellising system. This was based on the "Sunlight into Wine" theory promoted by Richard Smart in his book. However, after a visit from Richard, he said that the lower fruit would not ripen and I reverted to Vertical Shoot Positioning.
The vineyard is now totally mulched. This keeps the moisture in the soil and I only apply 1 litre of water per vine per week.
This is what it looks like from the air. This picture was taken by Don Buchanan, the winemaker at Hatten Wines, Bali, from his ultra light plane.
I found it difficult to grow good Cabernet. Here is Danny grafting them over to Sav Blanc.
I spent a lot of time removing excess foliage to increase airflow and allow more sunlight in.
Bud burst starts about mid September. The chenin blanc is first, followed about 2 weeks later by the shiraz.
Spraying with Thiovit(micronised sulphur), Kocide Blue(copper) and Topaz, Flint and Prosper (systemics) is done 2 , 4 and 6 weeks after bud burst to prevent downy and powdery mildew.
Veraison, when grapes change colour, usually occurs just after Christmas day. Here are the shiraz grapes at veraison.
As soon as veraison takes place the birds are in. The silver eyes, black birds and starlings are the biggest problem and you have to net. Here we are putting up the net.
The sugar level needs to be checked on a regular basis. I am looking for a Baumé around 11 for whites and 13.5 for reds.
Whites are ready at the end of February and are picked early in the morning. They are crushed and pressed immediately.
The reds are usually ready at the end of March.
They are hand picked early in the morning with the fruit at around 15 oC and put into 25 litre buckets.
When we are off site we use the trailer. The trailer holds 24 buckets which is about 250 kg.
Reds are fermented in LLDPE Roto cast tanks.
The reds are crushed quickly with the temperature around 15 oC.
The pH of the reds are adjusted then they are put into the cool room or cold box and cold soaked for 3 days. Yeast is added and the temperature slowly allowed to rise to 20 oC.
Yeast is grown at 40 oC and then added carefully to the must.
Once the ferment finished the must was pressed and put into drums. Normally the lees (dead yeast) are racked off quickly to stop the formation of H2S. However, the lees are a very strong redox system and so I put 1 ml/litre of O2 per day for 2 weeks and this helped the mouth feel.
Drums to be cleaned.
The drums need to be boiled with 2% caustic soda to ensure that they are clean.
They also need to be moved and here is the drum carrier built by Peter Patten.
We used micro oxygenation to hasten the aging of reds. Here are the two ex Air Liquide guys calibrating the equipment.
Here is the gear that delivered sub micron oxygen. I use about 1 ml/litre/week for 9 weeks.
Malo lactic acid conversion did not start and I had to use the hot box (made by reprogramming the PLC on the cold box). At 22oC it took about 2 weeks to complete malo lactic fermentation.
With red wines you have to convert the malic acid present to lactic acid to soften the wine. Here you can see the results. From the left: lactic acid standard, shiraz, shiraz, petit verdot, cabernet and another shiraz. If you want to see full details of the test method type MLF TLC into Google or your favourite web browser.
Here is the SO2 test gear. The wine needs to be tested for SO2 content prior to bottling. In the case of whites I am looking for 30 ppm of free SO2. I also add 15 ppm of ascorbic acid. In the case of the reds I adjust the pH to around 3.4 and then look for a free SO2 content of 30 ppm. The pH is critical. Above 3.4 the amount of free SO2 needed to stabilise the wine goes up exponentially.
We filter all of the wines. They were filtered using a standard 10" filter and a 1 micron PP filter. Some of the whites had residual sugar and they were filtered with an 0.5 micron filter cartridge. I used to pay up to $80 each for these cartridges but now use the $5 spun PP ones off the net.
After years of washing and sterilising bottles, I now buy them by the pallet load.
Filling is done manually.
We put a bit of CO2 in each bottle before it is filled.
Up until this year it was all hand corked.
New bottles means that the bottles must be rinsed with an SO2 solution before filling.
This year I borrowed a Stelvin Capping machine from Chris O'Connor.
It worked so well I have ordered one and will use it for next year's vintage.
Here it is. It works on compressed air and has an electrically driven 4 roller head.
All the wine is put into the cellar.The cellar temperature is usually round 15 oC but can get up to 25 oC when it gets up to 40oC plus outside.
The azaleas took a real beating on Black Saturday this year. However, they are recovering with the help of a bit of ammonium sulphate and FeEDTA.
This is only a hobby. The grapes are grown in the back yard or obtained from local growers. They are then processed in the garage and shed. Only 1800 bottles were made this year and there are none for sale. It is made possible with the help and support from neighbours and friends.
Here's the accommodation if you get up this way.
Or you can try the other room.
And a map to find your way.
If you have any comments please mail me
Click hereIf you have any comments please mail me
Ross McDonald,
1 Holmfield Court,
Moama, 2731, NSW.Australia
Phone 61 3 54 80 0258
I found it difficult to grow good Cabernet. Here is Danny grafting them over to Sav Blanc.
I spent a lot of time removing excess foliage to increase airflow and allow more sunlight in.
Bud burst starts about mid September. The chenin blanc is first, followed about 2 weeks later by the shiraz.
Spraying with Thiovit(micronised sulphur), Kocide Blue(copper) and Topaz, Flint and Prosper (systemics) is done 2 , 4 and 6 weeks after bud burst to prevent downy and powdery mildew.
Veraison, when grapes change colour, usually occurs just after Christmas day. Here are the shiraz grapes at veraison.
As soon as veraison takes place the birds are in. The silver eyes, black birds and starlings are the biggest problem and you have to net. Here we are putting up the net.
The sugar level needs to be checked on a regular basis. I am looking for a Baumé around 11 for whites and 13.5 for reds.
Whites are ready at the end of February and are picked early in the morning. They are crushed and pressed immediately.
The reds are usually ready at the end of March.
They are hand picked early in the morning with the fruit at around 15 oC and put into 25 litre buckets.
When we are off site we use the trailer. The trailer holds 24 buckets which is about 250 kg.
Reds are fermented in LLDPE Roto cast tanks.
The reds are crushed quickly with the temperature around 15 oC.
The pH of the reds are adjusted then they are put into the cool room or cold box and cold soaked for 3 days. Yeast is added and the temperature slowly allowed to rise to 20 oC.
Yeast is grown at 40 oC and then added carefully to the must.
Once the ferment finished the must was pressed and put into drums. Normally the lees (dead yeast) are racked off quickly to stop the formation of H2S. However, the lees are a very strong redox system and so I put 1 ml/litre of O2 per day for 2 weeks and this helped the mouth feel.
Drums to be cleaned.
The drums need to be boiled with 2% caustic soda to ensure that they are clean.
They also need to be moved and here is the drum carrier built by Peter Patten.
We used micro oxygenation to hasten the aging of reds. Here are the two ex Air Liquide guys calibrating the equipment.
Here is the gear that delivered sub micron oxygen. I use about 1 ml/litre/week for 9 weeks.
Malo lactic acid conversion did not start and I had to use the hot box (made by reprogramming the PLC on the cold box). At 22oC it took about 2 weeks to complete malo lactic fermentation.
With red wines you have to convert the malic acid present to lactic acid to soften the wine. Here you can see the results. From the left: lactic acid standard, shiraz, shiraz, petit verdot, cabernet and another shiraz. If you want to see full details of the test method type MLF TLC into Google or your favourite web browser.
Here is the SO2 test gear. The wine needs to be tested for SO2 content prior to bottling. In the case of whites I am looking for 30 ppm of free SO2. I also add 15 ppm of ascorbic acid. In the case of the reds I adjust the pH to around 3.4 and then look for a free SO2 content of 30 ppm. The pH is critical. Above 3.4 the amount of free SO2 needed to stabilise the wine goes up exponentially.
We filter all of the wines. They were filtered using a standard 10" filter and a 1 micron PP filter. Some of the whites had residual sugar and they were filtered with an 0.5 micron filter cartridge. I used to pay up to $80 each for these cartridges but now use the $5 spun PP ones off the net.
After years of washing and sterilising bottles, I now buy them by the pallet load.
Filling is done manually.
We put a bit of CO2 in each bottle before it is filled.
Up until this year it was all hand corked.
New bottles means that the bottles must be rinsed with an SO2 solution before filling.
This year I borrowed a Stelvin Capping machine from Chris O'Connor.
It worked so well I have ordered one and will use it for next year's vintage.
Here it is. It works on compressed air and has an electrically driven 4 roller head.
All the wine is put into the cellar.The cellar temperature is usually round 15 oC but can get up to 25 oC when it gets up to 40oC plus outside.
The azaleas took a real beating on Black Saturday this year. However, they are recovering with the help of a bit of ammonium sulphate and FeEDTA.
This is only a hobby. The grapes are grown in the back yard or obtained from local growers. They are then processed in the garage and shed. Only 1800 bottles were made this year and there are none for sale. It is made possible with the help and support from neighbours and friends.
Here's the accommodation if you get up this way.
Or you can try the other room.
And a map to find your way.
If you have any comments please mail me
Click hereIf you have any comments please mail meRoss McDonald,
1 Holmfield Court,
Moama, 2731, NSW.Australia
Phone 61 3 54 80 0258