CLAYFIELD

Grampians, Victoria,  Australia

Clayfield Wines is located 2 kms. from Moyston in the Grampians. Their vineyard is 5 acres (2 Ha) planted predominantly with Shiraz vines plus a few rows of Merlot. They source premium Shiraz grapes from several local growers to supplement their Clayfield Grampians Shiraz. All the Shiraz is produced entirely on site using traditional open fermentation and pressed with hand operated wooden basket press. Bottling is also done using their 'state of the art' mobile bottling facility.

From Winemaker and Owner Simon Clayfield:
Having being employed by medium sized wineries in the Grampians and Pyrenees between 1987 and 1998 I eventually realised that growing my own fruit and producing our own label was something that I had to do. Our property was suitable and the soil really only needed the usual amelioration prior to planting vines. Sounds relatively straight forward doesn't it, however this idea was a complete divergence from our initial plans for our property. When Kaye and I were looking for our future home and land we had discussed what we would do, of course we needed a suitable area for our horses and I had ambitious plans for an olive grove (several years before they became very popular) plus lavender, cherries, figs and lots of trees. Today we have lots more trees, some cherries and lavender but as yet not a single olive tree! They will come, believe me. Needless to say throughout the Grampians olive trees are now widely planted.

The vineyard was established in 1997 with 5 short rows planted in a 2 x 2 metre spacing. These vines where trained up to a cordon wire 2.3 metre high to provide a nice shady canopy under which we intend to place a long table for grape pickers lunches and the like. By 1999 we had expanded plantings to 2 Ha. The first few years were difficult as water for irrigation was in short supply and weed control required a great deal of manual digging out and vine-row mulching. We chose to initiate and manage our vineyard without the use of herbicide (Roundup) and follow safe horticultural practices by using minimal sprays of wettable sulfur. Fortunately the weather here does not cause a serious mildew problem and with regular monitoring of the vineyard we can apply our sprays only when needed.
To control weeds we have cultivated the vine inter-rows and sown a mixture of plants including rye-corn, oats, green feast peas, strawberry clover and 'Blockout' (a mixture of fesque and rye grasses). When slashed down in late spring to early summer the rye corn provides plentiful mulch on the vine row which reduces soil moisture loss and encourages worms and microbial growth in the soil. The fesque and rye grass was introduced last year and provides a permanent cover throughout the year and only requires mowing occasionally.

Things were gradually getting there and by late January 2002 a reasonable crop was just starting veraison and looking like producing our first commercial harvest. Unfortunately due to a fast burning grass fire early in February we lost almost every grape and suffered an enormous set back. All the irrigation lines were melted and looked like twisted licorice they had to be replaced ASAP so we could maintain water to the vine roots. About 80% of the vines were scorched and lost all of their foliage from the radiant heat. Many vines were cut right back to two buds at pruning which meant retraining and tying up (a chore that I find monotonous). The original five rows suffered the most as they were heavily mulched with horse manure and sawdust from our horse stables, the sawdust smouldered for ages and charred most of these plants close to the ground.
Now two years later on and after plenty of remedial work (without a single replant mind you) one would hardly know that the fire had happened. In March 2004 we will harvest a fair crop and I believe the grapes will make a terrific wine. In 2003 we harvested ~300 kg of fruit and made a small amount of wine, it looks good in the barrel and will be bottled next spring. The five rows have only half the number of vines remaining but crikey! have they grown this season. It's been amazing to watch them grow, they looked totally ruined in 2003 and only grew slowly, I heavily pruned these back to two buds last winter.

The winemaking is done simply and uses traditional principles, I don't mess around with wild yeast fermentations and will not add anything to enhance tannin or colour. In short I believe that if ancient civilizations naturally made wine, drank it and enjoyed it then then it's good enough for us now. The area where we can improve our product is in the bottling and closure technology. I find 'corked' wine very disappointing and it usually spoils a good meal if there isn't another bottle on hand. Fortunately, years ago I found a reliable supplier of cork whose products perform very well, in fact so well that when the opportunity arose 5 years ago I become the Victorian representative for the Australian Cork Company (ACC).

Cheers, Simon Clayfield

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