Ricca Terra – Soldiers’ Land Vineyard, Riverland Ashley Ratcliff

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The Soldiers’ Land Vineyard – purchased by Ashley and Holly Ratcliff’s Ricca Terra Farms operation in January 2021 – is not built around the Mediterranean alternative varieties that have made Ricca Terra famous. Rather, it is a celebration of heritage: an 8.8-hectare property at 171 Jury Road in Monash that has been farmed continuously for more than 103 years, first settled in 1922 by Horace Walpole and Clara Denford under the government’s soldier settlement scheme, and owned by the Petch family from 1939 until the Ratcliffs purchased it from Robert and Ruth Petch, who wanted to retire. The old shiraz vines were planted in the decade after the end of the Second World War and are now 80 years old. The zibibbo – the Sicilian synonym for what is locally known as gordo, and more formally as muscat of alexandria – is 75 years old. These are the vines that the Riverland wanted to bulldoze. Ratcliff saw something else entirely.

Ashley and Holly Ratcliff’s Ricca Terra Farms project is best known for the work they have done with alternative varieties, celebrating grapes that are key players in Italy and on the Iberian Peninsula and which have proven highly successful in the hot, dry Riverland, having adapted to similar conditions over centuries in their homelands. Through both selling grapes to many cutting-edge makers and driving their own Ricca Terra Vintners, 22 Degree Halo and Terra do Rio labels, the Ratcliffs have evolved the conversation on varieties and gone a good way to rehabilitating the reputation of the Riverland as a region capable of premium production. But the Soldiers’ Land Vineyard is a different kind of argument – one about what the Riverland already has, and what it risks losing. “171 Jury Road was settled over 100 years ago as part of the government’s soldier settlement scheme from WWI and WWII,” says Ratcliff. “In the past three decades, many of the plantings undertaken by the returned soldiers have been removed to make way for machine pruning and harvesting. The history of the region is quickly being erased.”

Prior to the Ratcliffs purchasing the property, the previous owners had been planning to remove the old shiraz and zibibbo on the basis of their poor productivity under conventional Riverland machine-pruning management. The property had been difficult to sell – the old vines, the ancient grape-drying racks and the rundown farmhouse were being read as liabilities by the market rather than assets. “Robert and Ruth wanted to retire,” says Ratcliff. “Generational growers in the region failed to see the value in the property, hence it struggled to sell.” The price paid reflected that – a figure that would be unthinkable in the Barossa or McLaren Vale for vines of comparable age and character. When Ratcliff disclosed the purchase price during a visit by winemakers Patrick Sullivan and Bill Downie, both of whom buy Ricca Terra fruit, their response was immediate: “How do we get a piece of the action in the Riverland!”

The Ratcliffs set about reversing what the machine-pruning era had done. The shiraz had been converted from bush vines to a trellis many years prior; those trellis structures were removed and the vines restructured back to bush vine and single-wire cordon, hand-pruned and hand-harvested. That process involved significant manual labour to remove large sections of the vines and retrain them to allow cane pruning trials. “The outcomes of the trial have led us to a direction to rework the entire vineyard,” says Ratcliff. “This also allows us to replace the trellis. The capital and timely direction will allow the vineyard to live on for many more years and hence preserve the history of those returned soldiers.”

The zibibbo conversion produced the sharpest vindication. Before the change, some wineries were offering as little as $300 per tonne for the fruit – the Riverland average. “Making the change to bush vines and using social media to advocate and promote what we had done and why has yielded us a price of $2,500 per tonne for those grapes we plan to not use in our brand,” says Ratcliff. The fruit dried on the original 60-year-old drying racks that sit in the vineyard becomes the Soldiers’ Land Zibibbo Passito – a wine now sold around the world. Some of the profits from the Soldiers’ Land range are donated to the RSL on an ongoing basis, and the stories of the founders and those who managed the vineyard are printed on each back label. “The whole range of wines – two shiraz, a riesling, a rosé and a grenache – all tell the stories of the returned soldiers and what they did for our country,” says Ratcliff.

Since purchasing the property, the Ratcliffs have grafted small parcels to extend the variety mix in the spirit of experimentation: prosecco onto 35-year-old cabernet sauvignon, and nebbiolo onto 35-year-old shiraz, with chardonnay also in the ground at 35 years. An olive grove – Don Carlo olives, planted three years ago – has been added in the spirit of the original soldier settlement model of mixed farming, returning the property to something like its original status as a diversified farm. Dwarf olive trees are also being interplanted between the vines as a climate adaptation strategy, providing shade to the vine canopy during extreme heat events. The renovated farmhouse – sitting in the middle of the vineyard overlooking the old shiraz and the olive grove – is now operational as farm-stay accommodation, connecting guests directly to the stories of the site. Future plans include small plantings of vegetables for use by farm-stay guests and local restaurants, continuing the mixed-farming theme of the original soldier settlers. The wines are made in small batches at quality-focused wineries in the Barossa – Hentley Farm, Elderton and Bethany.

Management of the old vines is deliberately minimal: composted organic cattle manure applied, and sulphur only for disease management. Yields are low; quality is the priority. “The key was to bring balance back to the vines and allow the old vines to produce intense and stylistic wines,” says Ratcliff. Living in the Barossa and surrounded by old vine fruit being crafted into serious wine, he knew the same was achievable in the Riverland – if the approach was right. “Changing the mindset from ‘premium wine can’t be made from the Riverland’ to ‘it can’ – plus mirroring the Barossa viticultural practices for the management of old vines and applying them to the old vines at Jury Road – has completely changed what is now tasted in the glass.”

The broader mission is explicit. “The Riverland needs new people to rebuild its reputation and prosperity, and this will come from viticulturists and winemakers seeking the value of the region,” says Ratcliff. “There is no other wine region in Australia that offers young and aspiring people the opportunity to enter the wine game without taking on massive financial risk.” If the vineyards at 171 Jury Road were located in the Barossa or McLaren Vale, they would be highly sought after, not threatened with removal. “Our ultimate aim is to preserve as many old soldier settlement vineyards in the Riverland as possible by setting a clear example of their value. The same should apply to the Riverland.” Ratcliff’s task – and his bet – is to make that case before the bulldozers win.

Ricca Terra – Soldiers’ Land Vineyard, Riverland Ashley Ratcliff

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