The vineyard is located on the Cargo Road west of Orange. The varieties grown are Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Gewürztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. The vineyard is unirrigated and planted on deep red basalt and clay based loam soils.
The Grapes
One of the unique features of the grapes in the Orange region is the slow, almost dormant period they experience in Winter and early Spring (June to late September). And then, it is if someone has 'unleashed the hounds' with the first sign of Spring and Summer - there is a magnificent spurt of growth and the warm to hot days see almost a daily change in the development of the grapes. This climate encourages a massive development of flavour and sugars in the grapes. The final months of Summer see the finalé of the ripening process with the bunches developing to their optimum size and sugar content.
Cargo Road Wines produce Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Gewürztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling.
Our signature red wine is made from the Zinfandel grape, a red variety that is relatively rare in Australia. The wine produced has some very unique characteristics and will suit a sophisticated wine buyer. These are typified by its:
- intense colour
- solid structure
- a hint of pepper to spruce up the palate and
- a pleasant lingering depth of flavour
Our signature White wine is made from Gewurztraminer a very elegant and dry style with luscious aromas of Lychees and roses with hints of spice. An amazing wine with aromatic dishes such as seared scallops with lemongrass, or Thai food. Also terrific on its own while you are cooking dinner or just enjoying life.
How we treat our vines
With the love and respect they deserve!
Grapes, like many other crops are not native to Australia, and can require some assistance to flourish in this environment.
Where we can, we have planted north facing rows to ensure maximum exposure to the sun, we prune back each Winter to two bud spurs on the cordon to ensure good balanced growth. In November we spend an inordinate amount of time managing the grass and weed growth between the rows.
During the latter part of the growing season we will lift foliage wires up in order to position the canopy to allow additional light and air flow to reach the grape bunches. The light helps the ripening process through increased photosynthesis. The air helps prevent disease As much as we would like, there is no such thing as 'a quiet week in the vineyard'
To help our grapes to remain strong and free of disease we spray them (depending on the amount of rain) with two natural elements, copper sulphate and sulphur dioxide. The copper works in a similar manner to an inoculation injection you might get before you go overseas. It boosts the vine's immune system to prevent the growth of a debilitating fungus and the sulphur (a natural element required by all plants to grow) works as a fumigant adding a layer of sulphur dioxide on the leaf surface which prevents spores from germinating and adversely affecting the growth. These elements are used by almost all the vineyards in Australia to promote health and growth in their vines.
We like all our little insects as they encourage pollination and/or eat the bad bugs in the vineyard and we therefore do not use any pesticides. We have a range of what we describe as 'good' and 'bad' insects residing in the vineyard. The 'good' as insects such as bees, ladybeetles, "good Mites": Vitoria & Doreen and the 'bad' are Light Brown apple moths. Scale Caterpillars and Blister mite. We have learnt to live with them all, and through the promotion of maintaining healthy vines tends to ward off all but the most determined apple moth. As such, we don't and won't use any pesticides, and in fact haven't used any since we took over the vineyard.
It is a balance to get it right, and we are happy that we have struck that balance.
Irrigation
As much as we'd like to we just don't have the water.
When you walk around the vineyard you will see that most of the vines have irrigation pipes laid out (in retrospect that was premature!), but we simply don't have underground bore water to provide us with adequate water supply. Current New South Wales water licensing laws mean Cargo Road Wines is limited to very small amount of the water that can be caught in dams on the property.
What this means is that during the dry years we have enough water storage to give each vine, (typically white varieties), a little drink of between 10 to 20 litres. To put it in perspective many other vineyards will water their vines with between 80 to 150 litres per vine per week!
The positive of this is that Cargo Road Wines whilst not getting the large volumes of juice from each vine during the drier years does get incredible concentration of flavour resulting in wines of intense varietal character and red wines with deep impenetrable colour!!
The Land
A combination of deep red basalt and clay based loam soil derived from the ancient Mount Canobolas Volcano provides a beneficial marriage of important minerals and moisture retention. The soil is acidic registering 5.5pH on the scale; this is a result of millions of years of weathering. We aim to bring the pH up to 6.5 over the next 10 years through the periodic addition of lime and dolomite. The soil structure is very deep - over 80m from some of the test holes we have dug. The vineyard generally faces North with a little tilt to the West ensuring that there is little risk of damaging frost (since 1983 there has been no damage due to frost) in the Spring and during the Summer months ensuring each of the vines receives the maximum amount of sunshine.
Harvest to Bottle
Grape
|
Harvest |
Wine Making |
Ageing |
Release
|
Merlot |
March |
March to May |
June to May (following year) |
June Long Weekend - following year |
Cabernet Sauvignon |
March |
March to June |
Zinfandel |
Early to Mid April |
April to June |
Gewürztraminer |
Mid February |
February to April |
April to September |
October Long Weekend |
Sauvignon Blanc |
Late February |
February to April |
Riesling |
Late February |
February to April |
Rainfall
Rainfall for 2007
Every one is very very excited. It has been years since we have seen a wet winter.
Rainfall for 2006
Big bad drought worst in 100 years, or so they tell me. We did lose 70% of the crop because of it.
Rainfall for 2005
Rainfall for 2004
Rainfall for 2003
