Time matters

Vineyards take time to bear fruit. It's not like planting cabbages. Or money trees. Just ask your local vigneron. You have to wait a good few years before your investment bears its first fruit. You wait even longer before it shows a profit on a balance sheet.

Meadowbank Vineyard's Gerald Ellis knows what it's like.

He's been in the industry for almost 20 years and and he'd still rather work a day on the farm than spend an hour with his accountant. The local bank manager is treated with the deference normally accorded a head-of-state.

Vines were first planted by the Winspear family on the 4000ha sheep grazing property in the upper Derwent Valley. That was back in the early 1970s. The 200-vine hobby horse was revived and expanded after Gerald Ellis and his wife Sue purchased Meadowbank in 1976.

The couple decided to take a closer look at viticulture when the bottom fell out the wool market and agriculture in general looked pretty grim.

Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon came with the farm. The Ellises' vines of choice were Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The two Burgundy varieties have since become the mainstay of the family's vineyard operation, transforming the Glenora site into a viable commercial operation.

But growing grapes in this part of Tasmania is not all beer and skittles. Or Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for that matter. Arguably, Gerald Ellis manages the only vineyard in the State with a climate that's more continental than maritime. The Hobart CBD is an hour's drive away; the ocean well beyond.

Growing conditions vary markedly, from frost-prone in spring to hot and dry as harvest draws near.

Imagine then the dilemma Ellis faced when confronted with the arrival of vintage 1994. 

Small in quantity - but big on quality - last year's Meadowbank crop called for plenty of patience and clear-headed decision-making.

With brand new 225L French oak barrels costing nearly $1000 apiece, their use in making the best possible wine was always going to be an expensive proposition.

"We were blessed with fantastic ripening conditions," Ellis recalls.

"We'd never seen riper fruit."

Meadowbank's Chardonnay, in particular, produced its best ever fruit.

"That was pretty obvious when we picked it," says winemaker Greg O'Keefe.

"Golden in colour - and really luscious - the fruit was riper, richer, and fuller than usual.

"It was certainly the ripest batch of Chardonnay we'd ever seen through the place. And with a new press and winery equipment on hand, we had just the programme in place to deal with it. I was really determined to go to town on it."

The solution? Make two distinctly different wines from it.

The results are currently on the market.

The 'standard version' is the 1994 Meadowbank Chardonnay ($17 cellar door). It's a fresh, lightly-oaked wine for early consumption.

At the top-of-the-range is the 1994 Meadowbank Grace Elizabeth Chardonnay ($22) featuring 'all the winemaking bells and whistles,' as O'Keefe would have it.

"The 1994 Chardonnay is a fruit-driven style, whereas the 1994 Grace Elizabeth relies on secondary winemaking characteristics to drive it," Ellis says.

"The main difference is that the Grace Elizabeth wine never sees stainless steel until it's bottled. It's 100 percent barrel-fermented. We're relying on oak, malolactic fermentation and lees characters to really show up in the flavour and length of the wine."

The wines are as different as chalk and cheese, Ellis adds. Intentionally.

"We made the 1994 Chardonnay for the bank manager, and the 1994 Grace Elizabeth for ourselves."

Meadowbank's Chardonnay vines don't exactly have money tree status at the moment, but their recent success in the market place heralds additional plantings of the variety over the next couple of years. 

Right now, Meadowbank's finely-wrought Pinot Noirs are leading the sales frenzy. Also made by Greg O'Keefe, the 1991 and 1993 vintages both won gold medals at last year's Tasmanian Regional Wine Show, with the older wine taking out the Trophy for Best Dry Red, Light/Medium Bodied.

A little over nine months later, the younger wine turned the tables, winning gold and two trophies at the 1994 Royal Hobart Wine Show.

Yes, that's right, vineyards take time to bear fruit.

First published 31 August 1995: The Advocate