The Mount Majura Vineyard was first planted in 1988 by Dinny Killen in league with that great pioneer of vineyards in the Canberra District, Dr Edgar Riek. The late Dr Riek had recommended the site to KiIlen due to the beneficial combination of red volcanic soil over limestone on a fairly steep east to north-east slope. Aside from aspect and geology for producing quality wine grapes, the conditions also mitigated against frost, a perennial local issue.
Those first vines made up just under a hectare of pinot noir, chardonnay and a co-plantation of cabernet franc and merlot. The vineyard was significantly expanded in 1988 and again in 1999–2000, with a lot of the pinot and merlot now grafted to better-suited varieties, such as tempranillo, mondeuse, riesling and graciano. The 9.3-hectare vineyard is currently planted to tempranillo, chardonnay, riesling, shiraz, pinot gris, graciano, mondeuse, pinot noir, touriga nacional, ansonica and parraleta. Another 4.5 hectares of vines are in the process of being added.
Dr Frank van de Loo has been in charge of the operation since 1998, first for KiIlen, then for a group of owners who bought the vineyard from her soon after. He has made the wines since 2001. With a background in agricultural science and a PhD in plant molecular genetics, Van de Loo has always had a vineyard-first approach, now working closely with viticulturist and vineyard manager Leo Quirk, who has been at Mount Majura since 2014.
“Frank and I work very closely together,” says Quirk. “My job has always been to produce the best fruit I can for Frank and the whole vineyard team. We discuss products, cropping levels, pruning, pests and disease and have regular walks among the vines observing how things are tracking. So, Frank is a major help in direction and to shape where we are heading.”
Mount Majura is a member of Sustainable Winegrowing Australia, and Quirk refers to his approach in the vineyard as holistic. “I have introduced sheep in the winter months to graze, thus reducing the amount of tractor time slashing and burning diesel,” he says. “We had an intensive assessment of our fungicide program, which led to using targeted fungicides that are gentle on the beneficial insects we have been building up. We allow ground cover to grow under vines to increase diversity and are using an under-vine slasher to keep it maintained.”
Another example of Quirk’s approach has been combating an increase in the population of scale insects in the vineyard. “Rather than trying to combat with synthetic chemicals to control scale, I introduced ladybird beetles to eat the immature scale and successfully reduce the amount of sooty mould in harvested fruit. We have also dropped use of sulphur in the vineyard, which has also assisted with reduction of rust mite and helped the beneficials thrive.”
Quirk believes that the site is a special one for vines, well chosen by Riek from a geological map over 30 years ago. “The limestone is mixed with volcanic rock, and both are very old, dating from the Silurian era (430 million years ago),” he says. “The red, iron-rich soil that has developed from these parent rocks has an almost neutral pH, some clay that gives water holding capacity, and excellent structure, allowing water to infiltrate and roots to penetrate to depth.”
The new blocks that are being planted occupy a less severe part of the slope and will include some tweaks, including subsurface irrigation and the use of only steel vine posts for trellising, rather than the commonly used treated pine that can leach chemicals into the soil. As the picturesque slope drops into flat paddocks, the suitability for vines is severely diminished, so Van de Loo and Quirk made the decision to lease the land, but in another testament to that holistic approach they weren’t simply returned to grazing land. Both paddocks are now solar farms, with one a community-owned project.
“If we choose varieties and growing methods that suit our site, then the resulting fruit and therefore wines will always be of greater character.”
“Looking through the back vintages of the pinot, there is an obvious link to wine quality and the seasons. It’s overwhelmingly apparent that over the last decade or more, it has become more and more difficult to make quality pinot as the climate grows warmer. Our data, including the colder wet seasons like 2011 and 2012, shows that picking dates have been moving forward by an average of one to two days per year. So, after 14 years, we can potentially be looking at picking a whole month earlier than we had previously.”
In the vineyard, Quirk maintains a permanent sward in the mid-rows, which are no longer cultivated and only mown in alternate rows in spring to maintain pollen-producing plants that are an important food source for beneficial mites. The integrated pest management program is also reviewed annually based on monitoring during the season. Vine tissue is analysed twice a year to manage nutrition deficits, while Quirk has also instigated soil analysis to measure and track increasing soil carbon. Yeast assimilable nitrogen (critical for clean and effective fermentd) is also measured in the winery, with deficient blocks treated with lime, while clover is grown to generally increase YAN levels.
While some of the classic French grapes first planted at Mount Majura have proven to be less than ideal, analysis of climate data pointed the team to ones that have been very successful. Chief amongst those is tempranillo, which was planted first in 2000. The similarity of conditions between Spain’s Ribera del Duero and the Canberra District proved to be an “uncanny” match. “Since those early plantings, we’ve expanded and now grow tempranillo in three sites within the vineyard,” says Quirk. “These wines consistently reflect the microclimates of their individual sites. While the blended tempranillo from all three sites is still our flagship wine, it’s the three single site wines that focus attention on the terroir and are the essence of what we strive to express.”
The focus on ‘alternative’ varieties has come through years of trial and error, and those trials continue to this day to match variety to site and climate. “We have several later ripening varieties in the vineyard, Touriga, Graciano, and Parraleta, all of which require the full season right up until Anzac Day to ripen,” says Quirk. “The vines in the vineyard predominantly run east west and as a result our canopy management has changed. We now allow the canopy to drape over the northern side, shading the fruit. It gives mottled light to stop over exposure, sunburn and preventing increased phenolic characters in the grapes.”
Quirk notes that charting the harvest of pinot noir over the years graphically illustrates the changes in the climate that have seen them abandon the grape for red wine production, instead picking it early for sparkling wine only. “Looking through the back vintages of the pinot, there is an obvious link to wine quality and the seasons,” he says. “It’s overwhelmingly apparent that over the last decade or more, it has become more and more difficult to make quality pinot as the climate grows warmer. Our data, including the colder wet seasons like 2011 and 2012, shows that picking dates have been moving forward by an average of one to two days per year. So, after 14 years, we can potentially be looking at picking a whole month earlier than we had previously.”
The underlying philosophy for Mount Majura is that quality should come naturally, says Quirk. “If we choose varieties and growing methods that suit our site, then the resulting fruit and therefore wines will always be of greater character. Every Mount Majura Vineyard wine is made exclusively from this single vineyard. From integrated pest management in the vineyard to wild ferments in the winery, it is about managing carefully but lightly, letting the quality come naturally.”
Please sign in or create account as candidate to bookmark this job
Please sign in or create account to save this search
Please sign in or create account as candidate to create a resume
