About
Drought's Block
We moved from Adelaide in 1994, to our small (by Australian standards)
5.4 hectare block just west of the township of McLaren Vale, which is a 45
minute drive south of the city of Adelaide, halfway to the popular holiday
resort of Victor Harbor in South Australia.
The Drought family tree has a long and proud history which has been traced back
to somewhere in the 15th century. Many Church of England priests were, and
still are, in our ancestral family. The family motto, “Semper Sitiens”, Always
Thirsting, probably comes from the Biblical text- “Always thirsting after
righteousness”.
As a business, we will always be thirsting for the highest quality wine we can
possibly produce using our very own premium grapes. We can certainly see the
quirky side of our family name being so apt for our wine business!
We (Michael and Julia) have four children; Miriam, Lucy, Tom and
Annabelle aged between 19 and 23. Our home is set on a small hill
with appetising views of surrounding vineyards and the Southern
Ranges of Fleurieu Peninsula,
just 4 kilometres from beautiful swimming and surfing beaches,
including the famous Maslin Beach.
Ours is a mixed farm, a cocktail of almonds, grapes, various animals
and children. We harvest most things from January to May, but growing
children has been a project which has taken a lot longer!
It is a temperate climate here, mild winters and very hot summers- an ideal
combination for growing grapes.
Our vines were planted around 1969-1970 on single wire trellising by the
previous owner. We were told the original cuttings came from
Penfold Estate Magill vineyards in the foothills of Adelaide.
We grow several varieties of grapes- Black and white Sultana, Muscat Gordo,
Riesling, Grenache and Shiraz. From June to September Michael meticulously hand
prunes each vine himself (with occasional help from Julia). It is a job he
enjoys in the company of his radio, the dogs and cats, plus any passing
wildlife which have included echidnas, kangaroos, lizards, snakes and many
varieties of birds. Our vineyard is opposite what was once the largest
vineyard in the Southern Hemisphere.
Company
Profile
Briony
Hoare
In late 1995, after completing her winemaking degree at the
University of Adelaide, Briony joined Southcorp Wines as a
graduate winemaker. For two years, she worked in many
different wineries, including Lindemans Karadoc,
Seppelts Great Western, Rouge Homme Coonawarra,
Penfolds and Seppeltsfield in the Barossa Valley.
In 1998 she returned as winemaker to Lindemans Karadoc (near Mildura, Victoria)
until traveling to Piedmont Italy as a consultant winemaker for the 2000
European Vintage, and then moving in late 2000 to take a position as winemaker
at Tulloch’s Wines in the Hunter Valley.
In 2001 Briony moved to Rosemount McLaren Vale as winemaker where she worked
with the full range of Rosemount wines. In 2003, she was named the Wine Society
Young Winemaker of the Year.
Mid 2005 saw Briony leave Rosemount to start her consulting business, Hoare
Consulting, to be joined by her viticulturist husband Tony in May 2006. The
business began with a demand for tailor-made vineyard management and winemaking
services. Tony and Briony apply their experience, share their passion for the
industry and combine both a personal and professional approach to meet their
client’s winemaking and viticultural needs.
“Drought’s Block 2006 Dessert Wine was an opportunity to work with some rare
McLaren Vale Riesling, and some older Muscat Gordo vines. In 2006 the Riesling
showed amazing tenacity and character even towards the end of vintage. It still
maintained some strong acid and only needed a little manipulation in the
winery. The resultant wine has been made to
appeal to those who love a wine with dessert, but who don’t want the cloying
syrupynature
of some botrytis styles. I guess you could call it fresh and gluggable! “
Briony can be contacted via email
briony [at] hoareconsulting.com.au
(to help combat spam, click on the above link or replace the '[at]' with '@'
symbol if typing the address)
Overlooking
the Vineyards to a rainbow
Briony
Hoare
Many
of the farms jobs are also done by Michael on his faithful 1954 Ferguson
tractor- she’s a great old girl according to Michael. As the weather begins to
warm up in Spring, the bright lime green buds appear, which augurs the coming
of vigorous long leafy canes as the temperature rises. The remainder of the
warm to hot weather we watch the vines grow from bare brown skeletons to huge
rich green canopies hung with luscious purple and green bunches of grapes. It
is a view we find immensely satisfying.
Keeping the current water restrictions in mind, we are conscious of good water
management practices. Although we do have a drip irrigation system, we maintain
minimal watering to encourage deep root systems. For some grape varieties this
method of watering also intensifies the flavours of the grape, thus enhancing
the end product- luscious wine!
We are members of the local McLaren Vale Grape Wine and Tourism Association
which means we are kept up to date on the newest and best practices of
maintaining a healthy vineyard and the use of chemical sprays is kept to an
absolute minimum.
In
the past few years we have been expanding the vineyards- a slow but rewarding
experience, especially having to deal with a large, shallow limestone ridge.
The Tortachilla Ridge runs straight through our property. Grapevines love
limestone, but it is a big challenge to establish plants on this type of 'Terra
Rosa' soil. Grape-picking, or “vintage” as we call it, is an exciting
time for us, when we see the results of a year’s hard work. Our grapes are
hand-picked to ensure only the very best are selected and to ensure minimal
stress to the fruit. We consider this one of the several essential steps which
work towards creating a top quality wine.
We
also chose our winemaker with the same high standards in mind, but we’ll let
Briony Hoare tell her own story….
"Vintage"
- Picking grapes
Some
of our grapes
We
enjoyed designing our wine label with the very competent guidance of Emily
Shepherd from Studio-E. I photographed some suitably cracked mud which was
drying on our block. If you look carefully, there is a hint of the shapes of
vine leaves and even an aerial view of Australia amongst the cracks!
Emily took my photograph and from it, created the unique design you can see on
our label. Thankyou Emily!