The original vines were planted on the property in 1893 by the Kaesler family, who were Silesian (a province of Prussia) immigrants. They had taken on nearly 40 hectares of land a couple of years earlier, and grape-growing was part of a mixed farming operation. They planted shiraz, grenache, mataro, “white Hermitage” varieties, along with a brace of fortified varieties.
Today, some of those ancient shiraz vines persist, going to make the estate’s flagship ‘Old Bastard’ bottling, while shiraz from the 1930s, ’60s, and ’70s is used for other premium bottlings. The Kaeslers had removed many of the other vines over the years, favouring orchards, grazing and equine operations. Today, the old horse stable houses the tasting room, while the homestead serves as tourist accommodation.
“Our improvement of soil health using composts has improved vine health, and we tend to see flavour at lower sugars. This helps us to achieve more balanced, fresher wine, requiring very little acid adjustment, and clean, healthy primary fermentation.”
The family owned the property until 1986. In 1999 it was purchased by Ed Peters and winemaker Reid Bosworth, drawn in by the significant resource of old and ancient vines. They honoured the founding family’s heritage, adopting their name for their wine label, and over the subsequent years more planting took the area under vine to 20 hectares.
“We are fortunate to have access to an amazing number of old vines planted in 1893, 1930 and 1961,” says vineyard manager Nigel van der Zande. “The majority of the vineyard is shiraz, but we also have some old vine semillon, grenache and other varieties. We feel that the natural sunlight and our attention to sustainable, regenerative farming techniques is allowing us to produce fruit with elegance, which is what the current consumers are looking for.”
The Kaesler wines have always been known for their power, but Van der Zande notes that over the years of following their viticultural path has meant that the sweet spot for flavour intensity has occurred at a lower ripeness. “Our improvement of soil health using composts has improved vine health, and we tend to see flavour at lower sugars. This helps us to achieve more balanced, fresher wine, requiring very little acid adjustment, and clean, healthy primary fermentation.”
All viticulturists want to send quality fruit to their winery, but it takes on a deeper meaning at Kaesler with the vineyard team also working in the winery. “Having an integrated vineyard and winery team has a huge influence on vineyard results, providing increased attention to detail and a sense of ownership through the whole process.”
While the improvements seen in fruit quality have been palpable, that confidence was almost rocked in the difficult 2020 vintage. “Australia was on fire, and it was very dry and hot through the spring,” says Van der Zande. “I was a couple of years into my full ground cover experiments and although I could see the benefits to the environment and soil health, I was still very stressed that production was going to be so adversely affected that I would have to rethink the project.”
As the season progressed, he was surprised to see the vines carrying a more than reasonable yield under the conditions. They were down about 20 per cent from a ‘normal’ year, but it was soon apparent that many in the region had seen much more significant losses, with some down by 70 per cent. “That’s when I knew we were onto something, and that there was a chance that what we were trialling at the time could provide great environmental outcomes and have positive effects on production at the same time.”
That crisis of confidence was also partly due to what he describes as the psychological side of “challenging and deviating away from the things I learned at university and earlier in my career”. That included accepting the presence of plants other than vines in the vineyard, where it was not long ago that a strict monoculture was the norm. “Seeing ground cover under vine as an important strategy and something that can have a positive effect on the long-term health of our soils, vines and environment and not as the enemy seems small, but when you have been trained to eliminate the competition, it is a big mind-set shift.”
“That’s when I knew we were onto something, and that there was a chance that what we were trialling at the time could provide great environmental outcomes and have positive effects on production at the same time.”
Van der Zande has been the vineyard manager at Kaesler since 2001, and he is now also the general manager. “I get teased by my work colleagues because I get quite emotional when I talk about my love of nature, animals and farming,” he says. “‘They say, ‘here we go again, get the tissues ready!’ But the way we are now farming is creating a synergy that I think has genuine long-term benefits for both passions.”
A self-confessed “bird nerd”, that synergy is something he is increasingly seeing on the property. “I love seeing a diamond firetail finch, white winged Triller, some blue wrens or finding a duck’s nest in the grass under one of our old vines. It encourages me that our management techniques are inviting new species of birds to visit us. It is a great feeling knowing we can farm effectively while giving mother nature a chance to do her thing at the same time.”
That chance has been enhanced by the planting of 4 hectares of Kaesler land with native vegetation to regenerate previously saline soils, with further plans to increase this biodiversity around the oldest part of their operation. “I think the way we have been farming over the past 100 years has been tough on mother nature,” Van der Zande says referring to conventional methods. “I am searching for a more holistic farming technique that has a better balance between land used for agriculture and allowing nature to thrive. This includes parcels of native revegetation set aside for various animals to do their thing.”
The mid-rows now support an increasing mix of native plants, which are largely kept down with the cell grazing of sheep. The grasses are only slashed twice a year, which is done between the rows and under vine at the same time, thus reducing diesel use and compaction. The ground is now never cultivated, and fertilisers have been eschewed for an annual compost application, which includes grape marc. Irrigation is used minimally and targeted through utilising the data from soil-moisture probes. These practices have helped lift soil carbon from 0.8% to 1.8% over the last decade.
The viticultural team have also been conducting extensive trials over the years involving trellis design, canopy management, vine material selection and the testing of clones and rootstocks that have the “genetic potential” to produce premium grapes. The effectiveness of their rootstock trials has seen them provided to high-end producers in Victoria. That process has also seen the propagation of the ‘Old Bastard’ and old vine clones, meaning the material can be preserved for the future.
While the results in the winery have been very promising, Van der Zande sees the methods as very much a work in progress, and that considers the bigger picture, too. “We see sustainability as the bare minimum of what we are hoping to achieve. If we focus on one part of what we are trying to achieve, which is building soil organic carbon levels, I believe it will have a hugely positive effect across all areas. Sequestration of more carbon in the soil not only builds the health of the soil, which gives us the best chance to maintain profitability on an economic level, but done on a large enough scale could have a profound effect on the community by reducing carbon levels in the atmosphere.”
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