While many identify the Hunter Valley with semillon and shiraz, chardonnay eclipses them in volume combined, and the region was critical to the feverish modern uptake of the variety in this country. The famous story goes that Murray Tyrrell hopped a fence in 1967 to purloin a chardonnay cutting from the Penfolds HVD Vineyard (since bought by Tyrrell’s) that was then propagated to produce the first ‘Vat 47’ Chardonnay in 1972.
The rest, as they say… That release date happened to also coincide with what were likely the subregion of Broke Fordwich’s first chardonnay vines, with 18 rows of the Penfolds clone planted. Those vines would become the basis for what was renamed Poole’s Rock (a local landmark, where destitute convict Richard Poole often sought shelter) in 1988 when bought by Macquarie Bank founder David Clarke.
What followed was a significant success story, but with Clarke’s passing in 2011 the brand was sold. With the focus shifted to Pokolbin, the Broke Fordwich vineyard fell into disrepair until it was purchased in 2016 by Karin Adcock. Renamed Winmark Wines (meaning ‘field of vines’ in her native Danish tongue), the 52-hectare property was significantly restored as a premier accommodation venue and premium vineyard.
“It is one of those special sites in the Hunter with pale duplex soils that are the source of many fine chardonnays. The pale soils have a slower start to the season and are generally cooler. Cooling breezes waft around the Brokenback Range and along Wollombi Brook, keeping this site cooler than many others in the heat of summer.”
The focus on chardonnay was maintained and enhanced, with celebrated consultant viticulturist Liz Riley managing the restoration and replanting with vineyard manager Dave Gosser. “The fruit comes off a rich heritage,” says Riley. “It is one of those special sites in the Hunter with pale duplex soils that are the source of many fine chardonnays. The pale soils have a slower start to the season and are generally cooler. Cooling breezes waft around the Brokenback Range and along Wollombi Brook, keeping this site cooler than many others in the heat of summer.”
“The biggest shift for Winmark has been the diversity of chardonnay plantings with the addition of the newer Bernard clones. This has seen the original high-pedigree parcels complemented with a different suite of flavours and complexity. It is great to see the historical Penfolds I10V1/V5 clones and new 95 and 548 clones express the site terror with different flavours and characters. All parcels are brought into the winery separately and we can see the difference – it is amazing.”
Under the previous ownership, that suitability to chardonnay had already become abundantly clear, with the semillon that was part of the original 1972 planting removed in favour of chardonnay in 2001. Chardonnay was also planted in 1984 and ’90, with new clones trialled in 2017 under the stewardship of Riley and Gosser, while remnant “obsolete varieties” were removed at the same time.
“The biggest shift for Winmark has been the diversity of chardonnay plantings with the addition of the newer Bernard clones,” says Riley. “This has seen the original high-pedigree parcels complemented with a different suite of flavours and complexity. It is great to see the historical Penfolds I10V1/V5 clones and new 95 and 548 clones express the site terror with different flavours and characters. All parcels are brought into the winery separately and we can see the difference – it is amazing.”
The fruit now goes to making different tiers of chardonnay under the Winmark Wines label, as well as being sold to other producers, with Riley noting that the quality and character of the fruit has garnered significant interest. “Planning, implementing and seeing a major vineyard rejuvenation come to fruition has been extremely rewarding,” she says. “The management of Winmark over the last five years has been very tangible in taking the vineyard from being mothballed and essentially non-productive back into production with more than 100 tonne per season coming off over the last few years.”
Riley takes a pragmatic view of management, but with long-term goals of always refining the sustainability of the vineyard operations. “The next thing to embark on here is a program of vineyard floor rejuvenation and increasing the biodiversity across the vineyard,” she says. “Hopefully we can look at some trial areas of cover crops and permanent swards next season – when it dries out!”
That damp, abutting extreme heat and fires, presents what Riley says are the biggest challenges for the vineyard management. “Fire, floods, smoke, heat and rain have all been challenging,” she says. “While we were devastated to lose the 2020 crop to smoke, we remain grateful that the property was not impacted by the fires, which came extremely close. We manage the challenging Hunter conditions with a toolbox of tactics, focus on timely execution of activities and are nimble in changing the plan in response to the forecast and actual weather events.”
This responsiveness is something Riley describes as critical, as well as having the right resources on hand. “We are using soil moisture monitoring and sunscreen to manage hot and dry seasons, and rootstock use has also been a handy tool as well. We manage the wet and associated disease pressure with cultural methods such as mowing and selective leaf and bunch removal for airflow and canopy drying. The biological fungicides have also joined the tool kit with great success in the last few wet seasons.”
Riley puts the success down to passion, observation, good planning and skilled hands-on management. “What I love most about working with Winmark is the great team I get to work with – owner Karin Adcock’s passion for something special, vineyard manager Dave Grosser’s focus and attention to detail and John Belsham’s [the winemaking consultant] wisdom from afar. Winmark is also a place of serenity. I love my, often early morning, vineyard visits here, with the sun peeping over the range and sunshine beaming onto the vines, it’s just magical.”
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