Wilson Vineyard | NEWS AND TRIVIA FILE

Our first plantings of vines in 1974 included a few rows affectionately known as "the fruit-salad block"; small bits and pieces of obscure varieties were planted to allow observation of their viticultural and winemaking qualities, and to provide a source of cuttings if further plantings were needed.

The patch included (and still does) a few sylvaner, muller-thurgau, emerald riesling, flora, and colombard; all of which seem to have no future in our situation. Varieties that have done well were merlot and pinot noir: a couple of other red varieties that may still have a future are souzao and (pinot) meunier.

Lastly there were a few vines of zinfandel. The zinfandel grape is grown extensively in California, where it is used to make nearly every style from a heavy red to a sparkling white. For many years the ancestry of the zinfandel grape was obscure; recent research has been of the opinion that it is the same as the widely planted primitivo of Italy. There is also a belief that it exists under another name in eastern Europe, and some sources speculate that on this basis that it is the most extensively cultivated grape variety in the world.

It was the apparent versatility of die grape that tempted me to strike a few more cuttings back in 1978, and plant a small plot which was eventually to cover 0.3Ha.

The variety has a high natural acidity, so much that with the tendency to high acid levels in our area, that the original attempt at making a small batch of rose or beaujolais-style wine resulted in something that would have been better used as soldering flux. Quite probably the variety would do better with that style of wine when grown in the hotter areas.

Next we tried a conventional claret style; interesting, different, and distinctive, but unlikely to gain acceptance by those looking for a dry-red. Our experience with this style seems to be similar to that of a few wineries in the Margaret River area of W.A., (which has had the only substantial plantings of the variety in Australia), and here, many vines have been grafted over to other varieties.

Our first real success with the zinfandel was some grape jelly that was done in little jars and sold at cellar-door, and there was a while when I thought that this may have been the only possible future for them.

There was one further winemaking option. Both the Californians and the Italians have exploited the tendency of the zinfandel/primitivo to achieve very high sugar levels, and have independently developed wines, naturally high in alcohol and with some residual sugar.

In the last vintage, we left the grapes to ripen, until by early April they were over 14 Baume, then cordon-cut the fruiting canes, to bring about some raisining of the berries. The grapes were harvested 3 weeks later with a must density just over 17 Baume. The finished wine is 15.6% alcohol and still has 1.5 Baume of residual sugar. It is indeed a rich wine, and ideally suited to sipping after dinner with dried i7itit and nuts, or a mild cheese. We haven't got heaps of this wine, and because of its high alcohol have decided to put it in half-bottles. We have found that its alcohol level makes it relatively resistant to oxidation, and that a half-consumed bottle will retain its freshness, if recorked and refrigerated, for at least a week.