The End of an Era

Just over 25 years ago I planted my first block of grape vines.
They were 100 Cabernet Sauvignon cuttings I obtained from the University of Sydney vineyard on their Orange, NSW campus where I was studying horticulture and where I became interested in viticulture.
Well there were actually 96 Cab Sauv plus 4 Chardonnay which somehow made it into the mix. Despite many unsuccessful efforts to convert them over to Cab Sauv by  grafting, the four remain there today.
As time went on, I increased the vine number to around 400, establishing another two blocks to include Pinot Noir, Tempranillo and Semillon.

Relatively New Cabernet Sauvignon Block in the '90s

Growing wine in our warm maritime climate was always a challenge with fungus diseases always being a threat due to humidity and wet weather, the latter especially, at harvest time.
But with regular spraying of preventative fungicides, and a one in seven good season, we were always in with a chance of having a successful vintage.
Of course that didn’t always happen. To see a year’s work rotting on the vines due to 3 weeks continual rain at vintage time was always a bit depressing.
And not so good wine made from less than good quality grapes due also to wet weather was always disappointing.
Thankfully insect pests were never much of a problem. I don’t think I ever sprayed an insecticide. This allowed the build up of ‘good guy’ predator insect populations in the vineyard that took care of any unwanted invader.
Of course we had problems with birds which we took care of by netting the blocks. And a few years ago we started to have kangaroo problems which have increased substantially as time went on.
Last vintage I was fungicide spraying on a regular basis, not to mention doing green pruning, weed spraying and inter row maintenance and it was taking a toll physically.
Then there was harvest and wine making to consider.
The heat and humidity of summer plus some back problems got me to thinking that it was maybe time to call it a day.
I didn’t harvest the 2019 crop at all and came to the decision during the early part of this year it was time.

Early Days / Pinot Noir & Cabernet

So this winter I will ‘mothball’ all three blocks rather than grub the vines out.
This will allow someone in the future, with some work, to get the vines ‘up and running’ again.
There are a number of ways of doing this and I have chosen the minimal pruning method.
This means cutting the vines back a minimal level rather than prune them right back to a crop producing level. Then the vines will produce lots of small shoots from the numerous dormant buds left on the multiple canes rather than a few strong shoots from two bud canes (spurs) and grow out of control. Over time the vines will self regulate and remain somewhat relatively compact.
The only maintenance then required is mid row mowing to stop them being a snake hiding place.
Sure, the new shoots will be subjected to fungus attack but that will be the price paid.
Then it will be a matter of making sure all the wine making equipment is cleaned well and protected from the environment.
And then that will be that.