“When I was being interviewed for my role as the new viticulturist for Penley,” says Loder, “I found myself drawn into a feisty debate about vineyard production systems, organic versus conventional, what defines soil health and so on. At times heated, I’d been drawn right in, and I left thinking I’d blown the interview for sure. But it turns out Penley was looking for someone prepared to challenge conventional thinking.”
The Penley Estate Vineyard was progressively planted from 1989 to 2000, with it now occupying 80 hectares under vine. The site is divided into 15 blocks, which are devoted to cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, merlot and cabernet franc. All vines are planted on own roots.
“Penley shares many characteristics of Coonawarra vineyards, particularly the understanding of site that’s required given high degrees of sub-surface variability,” describes Loder. “While in other regions aspect along a slope may be critical, in Coonawarra subtle steps in the vineyard or differences in vine vigour during the season hint at variability that exists below the surface – this often so subtle to be hidden from the eyes of the uninitiated! What makes Penley so special is the resilience its soils impart to the vines and the water holding capacity of the site.”
When Loder started at the estate, Ang and Bec Tolley were very much in the process of rethinking their entire operation after the retirement of their winemaker brother, Kym Tolley. When the sisters appointed Kate Goodman as their winemaker in 2016, then Loder the following year, a new approach was being ushered into one of Australia’s more conservative wine regions. This was not to abandon Coonawarra’s established strengths, though, but rather to reframe and enhance them.
In the last year, Penley has achieved sustainable certification from Sustainable Winegrowing Australia, and they are presently ‘in conversion’ to organic certification (NASAA). “With our next goal to then build this to Regenerative Organic Certification over the long term,” says Loder, “Our owner’s commitment to environmental, social and governance sustainability is increasingly tangible.”
“I’m very proud of what has been achieved since I commenced in 2017,” says Loder. “Bringing together the owner vision with the team’s technical ideas and ability, it’s been possible to deliver a fresh and new perspective on the vineyard. A key aspect of the owners’ vision has been to become hands on, nurturing and truly sustainable. And their way to achieving this has been through giving back and working differently.”
“In my role, there’s no ‘business as usual’, with winemakers Kate and Lauren pushing me to identify and deliver small parcels of fruit with which they can experiment.”
Loder is a second-generation viticulturist – as well as a geologist – influenced as much by his upbringing as he is by the latest developments in precision agriculture, with a raft of Agtech initiatives – as well as a cloud-based platform – employed across the estate. “My production methodology has evolved over many years, from what I learnt growing up with my viticulturist father as a mentor, to my studies, hard-won lessons learnt on the job and fruitful discussions with peers.”
After Loder began his role, an extensive survey was conducted to learn more about the nuances of the site. “In the vineyard, we’ve had to be smarter in the way we go about things. So, while the goal is to be more hands on, we’ve used aerial imagery paired with soil mapping to provide the focus, from picking individual rows and panels, right down to individual vines.”
That information returned a better understanding of soil and various pressures affecting quality and yield, including identifying areas more readily damaged by frost. Additionally, three distinct soil types were catalogued, with Loder nuancing the farming to respond to each, including a specialised irrigation plan, which has had positive effects on both increasing yield of high-quality fruit as well as reducing water consumption. This program is further informed by soil monitoring probes that feed data back to direct even more targeted water application.
“When I was being interviewed for my role as the new viticulturist for Penley. I found myself drawn into a feisty debate about vineyard production systems, organic versus conventional, what defines soil health and so on. At times heated, I’d been drawn right in, and I left thinking I’d blown the interview for sure. But it turns out Penley was looking for someone prepared to challenge conventional thinking.”
“With Penley’s owners mandate for us to be ‘hands on and nurturing’ in the vineyard, I use technology to give me the upper hand,” says Loder. “As such, I’ve combined newly developed Transp-IR technology to assess canopy temperatures and vine water requirements relative to seasonal conditions and available soil moisture. This has given me detailed insights to ensure I can deliver fruit to the specifications that Kate and Lauren [Hansen] are looking for.”
There have also been significant insectary plantings established, which attract beneficial insects that aid in pollination as well as prey on harmful bugs. Mid-row vegetation, which include cover crops and native grasses, are now present throughout the vineyard, and the use of herbicides and fungicides has been cut by two-thirds.
As with the irrigation program, key to Loder’s approach is targeting the team’s actions by using information logged in cloud-based systems – which relates to everything from spraying to manage disease to the application of compost – which is based on satellite images and data collected by drones. It’s a needs-based system, rather than a blanket approach.
Loder has a real gauge on how the improvement in soil health can be measured. Penley has collaborated on a number of research projects regarding compost application – funded by the Limestone Coast Landscape Board and the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program. Loder points to some of the results, such as “increases in YAN [yeast assimiable nitrogen – the amount of nitrogen available in grapes for yeast to utilise during fermentation] measurement of over 30%; a doubling of soil organic carbon; 2-3 times increase to aspects of soil biology including fungi, bacteria and overall microbial biomass; combined with a halving of water use,” he says.
“I’m continually striving to get to a point where I’m managing the vineyard to the individual vine level,” says Loder. “This is an area where I believe technology can make a difference in achieving a detailed level of management, within the constraints of finite resources of time and people.”
With only three fulltime staff on the viticulture team, working across 80 hectares in this kind of detail would be impossible without technology to accurately gather, log and compile data. And the benefits are not just felt by reducing the use of resources – such as water and treatments to manage disease – but are apparent in the finished wines, too.
“The winemaking focus has been on harvesting earlier, to make fresher wines that are all about the fruit,” notes Loder. Being able to monitor and pick small sections at precise times means that the style brief is readily achievable, with brightness and clarity of flavour now a Penley signature. “Flavours shouldn’t be lost through overripe or cooked characters.”
“The winemaking focus has been on harvesting earlier, to make fresher wines that are all about the fruit,” notes Loder. Being able to monitor and pick small sections at precise times means that the style brief is readily achievable, with brightness and clarity of flavour now a Penley signature. “Flavours shouldn’t be lost through overripe or cooked characters.”
Returning fruit of higher and more consistent quality is the most obvious benefit of the advances, but it has also meant that individual parcels are more readily recognised. “In my role, there’s no ‘business as usual’, with winemakers Kate and Lauren pushing me to identify and deliver small parcels of fruit with which they can experiment,” says Loder.
“At Penley, it’s always been the case that we never say, ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it’…”
Loder hints at a culture of experimentation at Penley. “Years ago I took a different approach to pruning an entire block at Penley, knowing to my core that vine balance was a critical aspect previously missing,” he says. “When Kate came to inspect the ‘trial rows’, she was shocked when I pointed out that all the rows – everyone in the block – were ‘trial rows’. But the leap of faith paid off. At vintage there was clear improvements to the fruit – locking in the strategy from then on!”
The hand-in-hand relationship between the viticulture and winemaking teams is one that Loder believes is critical to the ongoing success and advancement of the estate’s wines. “Efficiencies have allowed us to achieve our goal of becoming hands on, with an example being the vineyard team’s involvement from pruning to picking of the 2019 ‘Project Cabernet’ wine. This wine provided fruit aplenty, generous mouthfeel and balance, coming as a result of obsessive focus on understanding site, vine balance and then selective hand-picking of a small parcel of fruit,” he says.
“Changes in the vineyard combined with our vision for Penley Estate are delivering wines which are given the opportunity to reflect the character of the estate, Coonawarra’s climate and its soils. …Flavours are generous and fruit-ripe, in spite of being picked earlier and at lower Baume. …The season is better reflected, with vineyard management working to the vintage and not a calendar.”
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