Marion and Mark Semmens were hobby winemakers at the time of their trip, and the mothballed apple orchard seemed a good opportunity to plant a vineyard with what looked like an ideal aspect for grapevines. Initially, 4 hectares were planted with chardonnay, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon and müller thurgau going into the ground. Today there are 7.8 hectares under vine, with cabernet franc, syrah, pinot gris, muscat, mavrodaphne, zinfandel, gewürztraminer, tempranillo and cascade joining the fray, with the last vines planted in 2003. Current wines include a Chardonnay ($55), Pinot Noir ($70), Pinot Gris ($35), and Lunacy Pet Nat ($40), among others.
“The Kanamaluka [Tamar] River sits at the base of our amphitheatre-shaped property and allows refractive light to wake up the vines as the sun rises each day, giving them a head start for photosynthesis and a spot warm enough to ripen reds other than pinot noir.”
Marion and Mark’s daughter Cynthea grew up on the vineyard, even helping to plant some of those early vines as a child. Studying wine marketing at Roseworthy in the early 1990s, a winemaking degree followed at the end of that decade. In 2010, Semmens returned after a global winemaking stint, with winemaker husband Dave Feldheim on board to take the reins at the family farm, the pair taking on ownership a few years later.
“Not a day goes by where we are all very thankful for where we have set down our roots,” says Semmens. “In fact, its sheer beauty helps us get through the days and the difficulties of the rocks and boulders that the vines are planted between. The Kanamaluka [Tamar] River sits at the base of our amphitheatre-shaped property and allows refractive light to wake up the vines as the sun rises each day, giving them a head start for photosynthesis and a spot warm enough to ripen reds other than pinot noir.”
“From the start, the wines we’ve made from this property have always had minimal external inputs. Dry grown, native yeast, no additions but sulphur post malo, or before bottling, and no fining. Because of this, the consumer is tasting site expression as though they were standing onsite and looking at the same view that we are.”
Committed to farming more sympathetically, Semmens embarked on a biodynamic path, with the vineyard receiving its certification in 2022. “I have never been a religious person, but I feel like my vineyard and property is my church, and I hold utmost reverence for mother nature. So, in this context, my connection to nature and how I integrate into nature is key.” She also notes that organic and biodynamic certification is critical for staff, visitors and family. “To be held accountable and responsible for what they are consuming, and that where they are living and working is safe, clean and nutritious from our farming perspective.”
It has not been an entirely easy road – Semmens describes the journey frankly as learning hard lessons, pulling the vineyard back from conventional methods requiring significant labour and, at times, the use of fulvic and citric acids to address herbicide damage to soil biology before regenerative practices could take hold. “I am but a glorified drug lord growing a monoculture,” she says of the starting point. “This is not how I want to leave this planet, so everything and anything I can do to have a greater positive impact will be considered for my children’s future and theirs. With a very small budget we are proving that it is not prohibitive to change your farming from conventional to organic.”
The farming has certainly paid off in direct and measurable ways. Worm activity is tracked under every row; hemp mulch is being trialled as a weed suppressant; sympathetic pruning techniques based on the Simonet and Sirch methods are employed to support trunk health and longevity; and compost, worm castings and homemade biological preparations are applied throughout the season. Bat boxes and owl houses have been installed to provide natural pest control. Biodynamic preparations are supplemented with compost made on site, mulch and various organic teas. Native grasses and flowering plants are encouraged throughout the property, with the midrows mowed to return organic matter to the soil and increase carbon sequestration. The tractor runs on tracks to reduce compaction and carries front and rear mounts so that two operations – such as slashing and spraying – can be performed simultaneously.
“It won’t be wet down here forever, and water will be the next future currency. We need to keep as much of it in the soil as possible. Testing is critical to understanding our soil improvements and our best test is a shovel, and a microscope. Adaptation to climate change will be our greatest test.”
“The vineyard has responded to the reduction in synthetic chemical inputs with great smiles,” says Semmens. “Life is abundant in worms, fungi/mycorrhizae and also in native insect life. It has been a personal challenge to maintain a vineyard which resembles a Wall Street banker and then convert to one which is more like a Rastafarian busker. I used to see a mess, and now I see habitat. You tell me the last time mother nature grew plants in rows.”
That shift in perspective now informs how Semmens reads the vineyard day to day. “I can feel a change,” she says. “There is greater life in the vine trunks when touching them. There are smaller but more pert leaves with a deeper green. There is more life on the property – so many more birds, more beetles, ladybirds and dragonflies, and noise. The native grasses are coming back, and we are learning to leave them until they have seeded themselves before mowing. There is greater under-vine biodiversity, and it feels like we are all living in harmony.”
Reworking has also been a feature of recent seasons. The main block in front of the property had yield decline due to trunk disease in the syrah, with replanting and reorientation undertaken to improve drainage and aspect. Some chardonnay has been retaken on its own rootstock. Tempranillo – which has performed well on the site – is being extended on a smaller block suited to the variety’s requirements and to future climatic conditions. Looking further ahead, PIWI disease-resistant hybrid varieties are being investigated for planting at the ends of rows alongside other fruit trees, with the aim of reducing monoculture dependence and building additional income diversification should climate variability increase farm input costs.
Sustainability at Marion’s Vineyard extends well beyond the vineyard itself. All re-trellising is done on metal stakes. Semmens is switching to Australian part-recycled lightweight glass, contemplating a return to carbon-negative cork from certified sources, and using recycled cardboard for packaging. Biodegradable pallet wrap is replacing regular plastic, and the possibility of refilling bottles at their local farmer’s market is being explored. “Our aim is to have a closed loop system, putting all of our waste back into the land,” she says. “This currently includes human waste, winery waste and cardboard, but we would like to include glass and plastics.” Plans for a new gravity-fed, solar-powered winery are also being drawn up.
Tasmania’s high rainfall makes it one of the most challenging environments in Australia for organic certification due to disease pressure – a reality Semmens addresses directly. “It’s basically a fungal party zone. We couldn’t be just organic which completely reduces synthetic chemical inputs. We need to incorporate regenerative agriculture and biodynamics to secure the future of the soil and the wines.” And while water is currently not a constraint at this site, Semmens takes a long view. “It won’t be wet down here forever, and water will be the next future currency. We need to keep as much of it in the soil as possible.”
Through all of it, the aim remains what it has always been: wines that express the place with the smallest possible footprint. “From the start, the wines we’ve made from this property have always had minimal external inputs – dry grown, native yeast, no additions but sulphur post malo or before bottling, and no fining,” says Semmens. “Because of this, the consumer is tasting site expression as though they were standing onsite and looking at the same view that we are.”
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