Keith Tulloch founded his eponymous winery in 1998 after considerable experience at home and abroad. Tulloch works across seven vineyards, with the Field of Mars Vineyard operating as the home site. Its 5.4 hectares of vines are planted to semillon, chardonnay, shiraz, viognier, touriga nacional and tempranillo, with the older plantings on their own roots.
The Field of Mars site was first planted in 1968, and Keith regards the vineyard as one of the best for semillon in the Hunter. It’s a site he’s lovingly restored with the help of his father, Dr Harry Tulloch (a viticultural research scientist), since its purchase in 2008. Today, the vineyard is managed by Alisdair Tulloch, who farms with sustainability as a core principle.
“The decisions to prune and fruit- and shoot-thin the vineyards mean that we can achieve flavour intensity, which is often reflected in making wines with lower alcohols. In the Hunter, we are obsessed with making wines that are vibrant, bright and medium-weight, which typify the classic style of the region. More flavour intensity and expression at lower alcohols [is] something that we think is very important to Hunter wines.”
“The vineyard has sustainability programs based around vine health, soil health, biodiversity and carbon neutrality,” Alisdair says. “We have native garden beds near each block which shelter beneficial species and significantly impact our pest and disease management. We only use soft biological insecticides such as Dipel to control caterpillars, and have not used a non-selective herbicide … for more than 5 years. Each season we boost the population of beneficial insects by buying and spreading live bugs such as lacewings throughout the vineyard blocks. We participate in, and help with the organisation of, our local landcare group.”
The majority of the 5.4-hectare vineyard is made up of 1968 vines, with 0.4 of a hectare planted between 2014 and ’17. The Hunter heroes of semillon, shiraz and chardonnay take top billing, but viognier also features, touriga nacional has recently been grafted onto marsanne vines, and tempranillo has been planted on rootstock. Those last two varieties are a response to longer and hotter summers, planted with an eye to the climate of the future, but the classic wines that already come off the site are very much pitched in an elegant vein.
“The Field of Mars Vineyard is situated on some of the purest alluvial river sands in the region, which are particularly suited to creating classic and timeless semillon,” Alisdair says. “We are working with old vines and a very well-established style of wine that the region is world-famous for, so we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel! We have great belief that by making the right decisions and doing the work by hand with each and every vine, spending the time and doing things in-house with our small team, the fruit will speak clearly.”
The vineyard’s location within the Hunter Valley’s dress circle – a cluster of famous vineyards linked by that alluvial sand – doesn’t hurt, either. “This stretch of sand starts at the Field of Mars vineyard and stretches through the Casuarina, Trevena, Braemore and HVD vineyards, all of which closely neighbour us,” Alisdair notes. “These soils – which [our] Blocks 2, 3 and 4 are planted on – are highly prized for the classic style of Hunter Valley semillon, with sites on alluvial sands expressing elegance, brightness, minerality and flavour length.”
“The plantings of chardonnay, marsanne, viognier, shiraz and touriga nacional are much smaller on this site than those of semillon,” Alisdair adds. “These are mostly on the clay soils on the northern part of our property, and [on] the blocks which transition from the sand to the clay. Each of these varieties has been particularly selected because of the suitability to both our regional climate and the particular soils.”
As much attention is paid to the soil itself as is paid to what grows in it. Manure, compost and hay mulch are applied to the vineyard surface, which now teems with earthworms and beneficial microbes. A range of winter cover crops are grown in the vineyard mid-rows and under vine. “Under-vine cover crops, particularly Dichondra, have been implemented to suppress weeds and enhance soil health, with some blocks now successfully herbicide-free,” Alisdair says. “Synthetic fertilizers have been replaced with organic alternatives and midrow cover cropping.” Not happy to rest on his laurels, Alisdair continues to experiment with different undervine crops: “[We are] now undergoing a world-first trial of native undervine cover cropping applied undervine with a hydroseeder with Wine Australia’s Eco Vineyards program,” he says.
Led by production manager Alisdair Tulloch, Areas that were once nuisance zones full of undesirable weeds are now significantly important biodiversity corridors, with a predominance of casuarina trees diversified by planting other arboreal species and spreading seeds of native grasses and other beneficial plants. These corridors benefit native animals and insects, while they also act as wind breaks to protect the vines, which is especially important at delicate times like flowering. Those garden beds adjacent to the vines are planted to flowering native species, becoming havens for beneficial native insects, birds and micro-bats, and helping to deplete pest insect populations.
“The promotion of beneficial insect populations has greatly impacted our pest and disease management – eliminating harsh pesticides and reducing tractor passes,” Alisdair says. “This also links into the cover cropping, with our pollinator mix both increasing soil fertility [and] providing further food and shelter for beneficial species.” Sustainability here is a virtuous circle, with positive changes in one area cascading through to positively impact other areas.
“The Field of Mars Vineyard is situated on some of the purest alluvial river sands in the region, which are particularly suited to creating classic and timeless semillon. We are working with old vines and a very well-established style of wine that the region is world-famous for, so we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel! We have great belief that by making the right decisions and doing the work by hand with each and every vine, spending the time and doing things in-house with our small team, the fruit will speak clearly.”
Those cascading changes mean that pesticides have become largely redundant with the increase of predatory insect populations. The team doesn’t just set up bug hotels in Field of Mars in hope that tenants will turn up – “We purchase and spread live lacewings and ladybeetles, as well as their eggs, into the vineyard area so that they can predate upon pests that would otherwise need chemical controls,” Alisdair says. “The vineyard also practices integrated pest and disease management, so that along with the biodiversity programs noted above that the presence of pests can be noted and if necessary controlled by soft methods, such as organic biological [agents] that target caterpillars,” he adds. Such interventions are rare, though: “We have adopted a ‘wait and see’ method which usually results in the predatory population controlling the pest within weeks,” Alisdair says.
The quest for sustainability is also part of larger mission beyond fruit and wine quality. “We were one of the first businesses in Australia to achieve carbon-neutral certification in 2017,” Alisdair says with pride. “This commitment to environmental sustainability extends beyond the vineyard, reflecting our dedication to minimizing our carbon footprint.” It’s a mission that extends to their neighbours’ vineyards: “Keith Tulloch staff are also involved in the Hunter Valley wine country landcare group which helps to promote the planting of beneficial plants at other vineyards and around the area,” Alisdair adds.
While it’s clear that Alistair loves the Hunter – he grew up here, after all – he’s acutely aware of its idiosyncrasies when it comes to grape-growing. “The Hunter Valley is a region that has both high accumulation of temperature … and high disease pressure, particularly for downy mildew. We have found that that means that not all warm-climate grapes thrive here – more often, it is those with both suitability to our temperature and that have good resistance to disease pressure that are suited. We have found that outside of the region’s classics of semillon, chardonnay and shiraz, there is great expression from viognier, which we use both as a single varietal, and also in our shiraz/viognier co-ferments.”
“More recently, we have had great success with touriga nacional as well as some plantings of tempranillo,” Alisdair adds. “Marsanne has been a mixed bag, to be honest, with some years having fantastic expression, but some years – particularly [those] with high disease pressure – being more difficult.” Different rootstocks and their relationships to climate and soil add another layer of complexity, but also open up new possibilities: “In adapting existing varieties such as semillon to more heat- and drought-resistant rootstocks, we can see a bright future in a warming climate,” he says.
Experimenting with new varieties doesn’t preclude looking after the site’s precious older vines, including reworking them to improve vine health and structure. This restorative work is seeing dead wood removed from the old vines, then retraining, which gives the vine a more productive life and eliminates any trunk disease (a persistent problem). “Through soft pruning of these 50-plus year old vines to fewer buds, we reduce the yield whilst keeping the wood healthy,” Alisdair says. “We shoot thin by hand to remove unwanted shoots that are sprouting out of the trunks or canes, again reducing yields. Our target of two and a half tons of fruit per acre is to grow the very highest level of quality within economic feasibility.” All of this work pays off in the glass. “The decisions to prune and fruit- and shoot-thin the vineyards mean that we can achieve flavour intensity, which is often reflected in making wines with lower alcohols,” Alisdair says. “In the Hunter, we are obsessed with making wines that are vibrant, bright and medium-weight, which typify the classic style of the region.” Lower alcohols lend the wines extra cut and thrust – one way in which classic Hunter styles can position themselves amongst Australia’s vinous vanguard. “More flavour intensity and expression at lower alcohols [is] something that we think is very important to Hunter wines,” he adds.
“I have grown up with this vineyard being a huge part of my life, and I know the personality of the property inherently,” Alisdair reflects. “This is the place where I spend the most time with not only my family but also the amazing team of friends that we work with. It’s the place I meet up with friends [from] both within and outside of the industry – it’s even the place I both met and married my wife! It’s really a central hub for everything that’s good about life.”
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