Top spot uphill battle

Talk with anyone who's built a house from the ground up and they'll tell you the challenges of working on land strewn with gravelly soil and rocky outcrops. It can be tough work if you persist with it, so it's best avoided where you can.

Winemakers, on the other hand, have a certain reverence for rocky, gravelly hillside slopes. Ideal locations that catch the sun, and allow just enough miserable soil for a vine to put down roots and maintain their tenuous grip on life.

Getting the most out of lean and hungry sites can be an uphill battle, both literally and figuratively, says Granton Vineyard's Steve Lubiana. The job needs patience and a good deal of careful management. 

And you don't plan to produce a super Chardonnay or premium Pinot Noir at the drop of a hat. Instead, you watch and you wait. 

You see your best wines as works in progress. They claw their way to the top, a little bit at a time. 

All of which is a roundabout way of explaining the recent release of the 2003 Stefano Lubiana Collina Chardonnay ($60 cellar door).

You see 'Collina' means 'hillside' in Italian. 

Lubiana's new wine is the company's first super premium Chardonnay. And its Collina reference on the label draws deliberate attention to the vineyard's barren slopes overlooking the River Derwent. They were first planted with a selection of Chardonnay clones way back in 1990.

"When Monique and I first came here that year, I liked the look of the soil more than anything else," the winemaker recalls.

"It's really quite gravelly and it reminded me of Margaret River in Western Australia."

He says his site's low rainfall and poor water-holding capacity are valuable assets when it comes to cool-climate viticulture.

"They're really good management tools because you can manipulate your vine vigour and berry size," he adds.

"I like a lot of small berries so I can get a high skin-to-juice ratio, and plenty of fruit concentration and structure in my wines. Even so, I still like to water right through to harvest, to make sure we keep all our leaves on the vines."

That said, Lubiana is quick to point out that the secret to producing a top quality Chardonnay isn't simply a matter of adding or withholding water in the vineyard. A lot depends on the quality of the vineyard material itself.

When Granton Vineyard was first established, its clonal selection was a fairly modest one by Australian standards. Today, however, Lubiana says his vineyard's roll-call features a smattering of Burgundy clones (76, 95 and 95); several rows of Gin Gin and Mendoza clones; and the industry's usual suspects, Penfolds P58 and I10V1 clones.

Why the exotic mix?

Each will result in a barrel-fermented wine with distinctive, almost signature characteristics, Lubiana explains. 

Blend them together and you have an opportunity to create a wine that has greater subtlety and complexity of aroma and flavour than any of its component parts.

Lubiana believes his Gin Gin and Mendoza clones appear particularly promising on the site, as they typically produce low yields of high quality fruit. 

Gin Gin is the most widely used Chardonnay clone in Margaret River, and draws fans to superstar wines like Leeuwin Estate and Cullen.

But don't expect to see a Collina Pinot Noir just yet. 

Lubiana says that while his 2005 wine looks very impressive indeed, it will need another year or two before it finds its way onto the market.

First published 22 February 2006: The Examiner