Consistency key to shiraz

SATURDAY, APRIL 01, 2006

By Mark Osborne, National Grape Grower magazine, April 2006

AT A GLANCE
- Quality driven philosophy
- Irrigation frequency crucial
- Hand-picked and pruned

Seven years ago, Coriole altered the way it cares for shiraz vines.

The McLaren Vale winery inherited vines that had a second tier attached.

This was a result of high demand in McLaren Vale in the 1980s and 1990s.

But this disadvantaged quality, canopy management, berry size, irrigation and meant lack of fruitfulness.

Nowadays supply has obviously caught up and even surpassed demand.

So Coriole, conscious of the industry �s future, moved with the times and improved shiraz management in the process.

The top cordons were removed and now the focus is on producing the best quality fruit possible.

In 2002 winemaker Grant Harrison and viticulturist Rachel Steer formed a partnership that revolves around constant vineyard monitoring and data collation, consistency with management practices and communication with growers.

Grant says all vineyards are measured for moisture, and fruit weight, bunch weight, bud numbers and bunch numbers are all recorded.

"We are slowly building up this data bank that has enabled us to go into the vineyard and have the confidence to grade fruit accordingly," Grant said.

But one of the biggest successes has been to take on the management of the growers� vineyards.

Rachel is in effect a consultant for Coriole�s growers, and this enables consistent management practices and in turn has provided an improvement in quality.

�This has evened out the lumps and bumps of fruit quality we were getting in the winery,� Grant said.

Although recording as much data as possible is important for Grant and Rachel, Grant says the best way to know what is happening in the vineyard is to get out there.

�At the end of the day, pulling your boots on and having a look is the best thing you can do; we spend hours in the vineyard,� he said.

Grant says the biggest killer, from a winemaking point of view, is unevenness, either from vine to vine or within the vine.

�You really want every berry in every bunch to reach a level of physiological ripeness.�

To combat unevenness, Coriole fertigates all premium shiraz vineyards, mulches selected areas and varies the amount of water added by increasing drippers in some spots.

Shoot thinning is also done after bud burst.

Grant and Rachel also identify specific areas within the vineyard to pick at varying times.

This ensures a consistency of ripeness and quality.

Rachel says irrigation methods are crucial so, leading up to vintage, Coriole waters blocks with shallow soil every three days.

She believes some growers have placed too much emphasis on stressing the vine through lack of irrigation and this does fruit quality no good.

�Some growers have taken this method too far,� Rachel said.

�I think a bit of regulation is good, we don�t want to grow a big, lush canopy but by the same token you need the vines to function to provide the sugars and flavour.� Rachel believes the fruit ripens faster physiologically if the vine is functioning well.

Coriole hand-pick and prune all their premium fruit and although this costs more, Rachel says the company well and truly makes up the cost with a higher grade of fruit and a better quality wine.

Details: Coriole 08 8323 8305

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