Australia's Smallest Vineyard and Winery at Moama
The 2005 wines proved to be a very mixed bag. The whites were excellent but the reds were very ordinary. I sent them to the Perth Royal Show and the National Amateur wine show in Adelaide for judging.
Here are the trophies I won at the National Amateur Wine Show in Adelaide
The sauvignon blanc won a gold medal, trophy for the best wine in its class and the trophy for the best wine in the show. Other results for 2005 were:
2005 Perricoota Chardonnay - Silver Medal and trophy for 2nd in its class.
2005 Perricoota Verdelho - Bronze Medal and trophy for 3rd in its class.
I also won a gold medal and the trophy for the best wine in the Perth Show. This was the 2005 Perricoota Shiraz Port
The other results were: 2005 Moama Chenin Blanc - Bronze Medal
2005 Perricoota Sauvignon Blanc - Bronze medal
2005 Perricoota Chardonnay - Silver Medal
2005 Perricoota Petit Verdot - Bronze Medal
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 grown on a "Scott Henry" trellising system. This is based on the "Sunlight into Wine" theory promoted by Richard Smart in his book.
This all changed when Richard Smart visited my vineyard this year. He didn't like what he saw and said that it all had to be changed.
Here is the normal prune. Major surgery was required.
Richard said that the lower fruit would never ripen and I had to go back to one fruiting wire. We took to the vines with a power saw.
We also cut the trees back to increase airflow.
Here is the Chenin in November. You would never know that they had been pruned so heavily.
This is what it looks like from the air. This picture was taken by Don Buchanan, the winemaker at Hopwood Wines, from his ultra light plane.
Don and I doing a quality check.
The vine cuttings are all mulched and composted.
I then put a trailer load of chicken shit on top.
Finally cover it with black plastic.
We had about 200mm of rain in October/November. This led to huge growth.
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 and another 2 weeks for the cabernet.
Spraying with Thiovit(micronised sulphur), Ridomil(copper) and Topaz (systemic) 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.
To make good whites you need a cool room. Here we are putting it together.
The refrigeration unit is outside.
We fermented the whites in 50 litre stainless steel drums in the cool room at 15 oC.
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. This year, a major innovation is a stainless steel basket. This was made by one of the local wine people and has a far higher drainage area (50%) than the wooden slat basket (about 10%) and produces about 10% more juice at lower pressures. 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.
The wines need to be racked on a regular basis.
Cleaning is another problem. We use a high pressure washer to assist.
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. This year I used about 4 ml/litre/month for 6 weeks. The earlier oxygenation on the lees meant that less was needed.
This system is probably too dear for most people and I have developed an alternative MOX system for less than $20. It is based on a fish tank pump plus a ceramic diffuser.
I have calibrated this system and at the low speed it delivers 480 ml/minute of air. As air contains 20% O2 and this gives a rate of 96ml/minute O2. If you wanted to achieve 4ml/litre/month of MOX on a 50 litre drums you would need 30 seconds per week.
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. I recently bought a malo lactic test kit and 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 50 micron PP filter coated with Celite standard. Some of the whites had residual sugar and they were filtered with an 0.45 micron filter cartridge. Also shown here are the silicone bungs which allow CO2 to escape. They were used in the white ferments and the malo lactic ferments of the reds.
All wine is hand bottled. One of the innovations this year was to use a filling attachment with an automatic cut off.
Everyone helps.
It is also hand corked. We use Amorim Twin Tops. These have good cork at the top and bottom and reconstituted cork in the middle. The Australian Wine Institute found them to be the best corks they tested.
All the wine is put into the cellar.
I drove to Adelaide in September to deliver the wine to the Adelaide show. Gordon and I shared our birthday on the 11th.
Melbourne Cup Day is a big day at Moama.
Bruce does some cooking before the herd arrive.
Pauline's roses are always a feature.
Before everyone arrives.
Bruce gives a wave.
The sweeps are filling up.
Bill, Jacqui and Leon are entering the spirit.
Leivett and Norm
Pauline, Janine and Anne
Don seems to be enjoying his beer.
Jacqui looks happy.
Here is the annual golf game with the "Beach Boys" from Geelong. From the left Ian, David, Graeme and me. Unfortunately, Ian Heritage suffered a massive stroke on a flight from Hong Kong to Frankfurt and died on July 27, 2005. He would have turned 50 on August 16, 2005. He will be sadly missed.
Nematodes are a big problem when you grow tomatoes in the same spot every year. They attack the root system and stunt growth. I read that you can kill them if you can get the soil up to 32 oC. I do this by putting on some chook poo and covering with black plastic.
Moama is also the tomato capital of the world. Here is Normie rotary hoeing one of my garden beds.
I have put in about 60 plants and they all have wire frames to grow in.
The azaleas looked fantastic this year. I worked out the secret. Use ammonium sulphate as fertiliser. I also put the spent yeast on them to increase acidity.
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 2500 bottles were made this year and there are none for sale. It is made possible with the help and support from neighbours and friends.
If you come up here you will probably get a job. Here is Jeff mulching.
Rod and Coralie Magnus from Karratha turned up in January for a bit of R&R. Rod has a Nissan 3.0 turbo diesel to pull the Trackmaster van but found that it didn't have enough torque. He had a 6.5 litre V8 Chevy Diesel fitted and it has heaps of torque.
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
The vine cuttings are all mulched and composted.
I then put a trailer load of chicken shit on top.
Finally cover it with black plastic.
We had about 200mm of rain in October/November. This led to huge growth.
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 and another 2 weeks for the cabernet.
Spraying with Thiovit(micronised sulphur), Ridomil(copper) and Topaz (systemic) 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.
To make good whites you need a cool room. Here we are putting it together.
The refrigeration unit is outside.
We fermented the whites in 50 litre stainless steel drums in the cool room at 15 oC.
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. This year, a major innovation is a stainless steel basket. This was made by one of the local wine people and has a far higher drainage area (50%) than the wooden slat basket (about 10%) and produces about 10% more juice at lower pressures. 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.
The wines need to be racked on a regular basis.
Cleaning is another problem. We use a high pressure washer to assist.
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. This year I used about 4 ml/litre/month for 6 weeks. The earlier oxygenation on the lees meant that less was needed.
This system is probably too dear for most people and I have developed an alternative MOX system for less than $20. It is based on a fish tank pump plus a ceramic diffuser.
I have calibrated this system and at the low speed it delivers 480 ml/minute of air. As air contains 20% O2 and this gives a rate of 96ml/minute O2. If you wanted to achieve 4ml/litre/month of MOX on a 50 litre drums you would need 30 seconds per week.
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. I recently bought a malo lactic test kit and 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 50 micron PP filter coated with Celite standard. Some of the whites had residual sugar and they were filtered with an 0.45 micron filter cartridge. Also shown here are the silicone bungs which allow CO2 to escape. They were used in the white ferments and the malo lactic ferments of the reds.
All wine is hand bottled. One of the innovations this year was to use a filling attachment with an automatic cut off.
Everyone helps.
It is also hand corked. We use Amorim Twin Tops. These have good cork at the top and bottom and reconstituted cork in the middle. The Australian Wine Institute found them to be the best corks they tested.
All the wine is put into the cellar.
I drove to Adelaide in September to deliver the wine to the Adelaide show. Gordon and I shared our birthday on the 11th.
Melbourne Cup Day is a big day at Moama.
Bruce does some cooking before the herd arrive.
Pauline's roses are always a feature.
Before everyone arrives.
Bruce gives a wave.
The sweeps are filling up.
Bill, Jacqui and Leon are entering the spirit.
Leivett and Norm
Pauline, Janine and Anne
Don seems to be enjoying his beer.
Jacqui looks happy.
Here is the annual golf game with the "Beach Boys" from Geelong. From the left Ian, David, Graeme and me. Unfortunately, Ian Heritage suffered a massive stroke on a flight from Hong Kong to Frankfurt and died on July 27, 2005. He would have turned 50 on August 16, 2005. He will be sadly missed.
Nematodes are a big problem when you grow tomatoes in the same spot every year. They attack the root system and stunt growth. I read that you can kill them if you can get the soil up to 32 oC. I do this by putting on some chook poo and covering with black plastic.
Moama is also the tomato capital of the world. Here is Normie rotary hoeing one of my garden beds.
I have put in about 60 plants and they all have wire frames to grow in.
The azaleas looked fantastic this year. I worked out the secret. Use ammonium sulphate as fertiliser. I also put the spent yeast on them to increase acidity.
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 2500 bottles were made this year and there are none for sale. It is made possible with the help and support from neighbours and friends.
If you come up here you will probably get a job. Here is Jeff mulching.
Rod and Coralie Magnus from Karratha turned up in January for a bit of R&R. Rod has a Nissan 3.0 turbo diesel to pull the Trackmaster van but found that it didn't have enough torque. He had a 6.5 litre V8 Chevy Diesel fitted and it has heaps of torque.
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