Laying sound foundations

When a mainland writer earlier this year described local winemaker Andrew Hood as being as "busy as a Beirut brickie" his words may not have been politically correct, but they certainly captured the spirit of what it's like to be the State's fourth largest wine producer.

How else could you describe someone who's driven countless kilometres checking new crops? Or has been at the helm of his new, half-million dollar winery at Cambridge for up to 14 hours a day for a full eight weeks of vintage?

One thing's for sure, you don't get much of an idea if you simply take Andrew Hood at his word. 

Jenny Hood is certainly pleased to have her husband back at the dinner table these days.

"We have been fairly busy," Hood says in typically laconic fashion.

A master of the understatement, the former microbiologist is now lord and master of some 58 new batches of wine. With 30 clients spread throughout the State – on sites as diverse as Lake Barrington Estate (North West), Rowella (Tamar Valley), Apsley Gorge (East Coast) and Glaziers Bay (Huon Valley) – there's no one better qualified to comment on this year's vintage crop.

Hood has seen the good and the bad of the 1994-1995 season.

"There should be some very good wines to come out of it," he says, casting his eyes around his cavernous new facility. 

Having processed almost 180 tonnes of fruit this vintage, Hood now has the job of maintaining a watchful eye over the 30 or so fermentation vats and 200-plus French oak barrels that hold his clients' new wines.

"The East Coast gave us consistently the best fruit," he recalls. 

"Disease-free and with good ripeness. This area - the Coal River Valley - was pretty good too."

The surprise packet of the vintage proved to be a new enterprise located near Relbia, just outside of Launceston. Without its own commercial label at the moment, the Kelly's Creek site yielded 11 tonnes of Riesling in pristine condition. It was the vineyard's first vintage.

Hood says a feature of this year's harvest right across the State has been the dramatic increase in crop sizes.

"Quantity is well up," Hood notes.

Ever the quiet achiever, he's thankful for having been able to move into a much larger winery for vintage 1995. 

Five years ago, Hood completed his first vintage in the State using a small section of winery space made available to him at Hobart's Moorilla Estate. Thanks to the generosity of the Alcorso family, Hood Wines was able to process 16 tonnes of fruit from the excellent 1990 vintage. He had just six vineyard clients.

Winemaking duties for the next three vintages were conducted at Peter and Ruth Althaus's new facility at Stoney Vineyard, just outside Campania. Hood appreciated the Swiss couple's help in allowing him to build up his contract winemaking business there. But the growing volumes of wine undergoing extended maturation on the site eventually told him it was time to move on to a much larger facility of his own.  

"We have done at least two-and-a-half times the volume we did last year," Hood notes. 

"We expected to do 140-150 tonnes this year, but we're up by a good 20 percent. We were about one barrel short of saturation point. We won't want to grow much bigger than that because I want to retain control over it all, to maintain a hands-on approach to winemaking.

"I've got to sit down now and do some careful, long-term planning. I don't think we can take too many more customers."

First published 22 June 1995: The Advocate