The Winery & Vineyard

The Property was selected in 1999 and is situated on north facing slopes of the Bennet Ranges. This area has been identified by the eminent Dr. John Gladstone, viticultural scientist, who believes this area offers the most true, "cool climate" wine grape growing potential in Western Australia. Preparation of the vineyard commenced early 2000 and was completed by September 2000.

"How many acres to plant?"

After the researching, questioning and discussions with many people in the industry, we finally agreed to plant 5 acres. This would be a mixture of Shiraz, Chenin Blanc which were our personal favourites along with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from which we’d make the Sparkling wine. With that decision settled, we started looking for a winemaker to make our wines. We did our research and at the top of the list was John Wades name, but how to get to him was the next challenge. As luck would have it, Jeff, the real estate agent who sold us this wonderful property just happened to be a very close friend of Johns. Jeff said "I can organise for you to meet him" and so the meeting was arranged. Johns first question was "what varieties do you want to plant?" - to which we said Shiraz and Chenin.

John had a little chuckle and said "plant those varieties here in Denmark and you will only get about 4 good vintages out of 10" - Not exactly what we wanted to hear!!

John said "if you like those, just go and buy the ones you like to drink and plant what Denmark is suited and renowned for". He recommended, Merlot and Riesling for the still wines and Chardonnay (clone 7) and Pinot Noir (droopy variety) for the sparkling.
We took Johns advice and phoned to thank him. During the conversation we told him that we were going to follow his recommendations completely. John recognised that we had a extreme passion and commitment to quality for our new direction. As a result, John offered to personally make our wines along side us. We can’t begin to explain how excited we were to have, whom we consider to be one of the best winemakers in Australia personally making our wine.

Now with John as our winemaker we gained added confidence and decided to plant 7.5 acres. That’s how the 4.5 acres of Merlot, 2 acres of Riesling and 1 mixed acre of Pinot Noir/Chardonnay came to be planted on Rickety Gate Estate.

Our first vintage was harvested from our Merlot block in April 2002 and fermented in an open fermenter. After spending nearly one year in brand new French oak barrels it was then bottled in February 2003 and subsequently released in July 2003.

The Trellis Method

We employ the VSP (Vertical Shoot Position) trellising system.

The VSP is a system of movable foliage wires which allow new shoots to be trained upwards into one thin canopy which is commonplace in Europe and rapidly gaining acceptance in Australia.

This system comprises of one main fixed wire located at around 950mm from the ground which we grow the vines arms onto. This is called the cordon wire.

Then there are two sets of movable wires above the cordon wire. The first set of these are moved below the cordon wire after pruning in winter. During the spring when the shoots are actively growing and reach a lengths of approximately 300mm we lift the wires up past the cordon onto the first set of clips which hold the shoots together to form the “Vertical Shoot Position”.

As the shoots continue to grow through the spring and into summer the top set of wires are lowered to once again hold the canopy together. When the shoots are long enough (about 1 metre) the top set of wires are lifted back up to the top position to hold the canopy together. This minimises the amount of shade for the fruit and with the aid of good canopy management allows the vigneron to produce an excellent crop.

The Vineyard Year

Denmark is a cool climate area and as such our year is a little later than most other areas.
Budburst is normally mid September with flowering occurring late November.

Verasion (Colour change of the berries) takes place at the start of February with full colour early in March. Harvesting generally takes place in April with pruning in July & August.

Spring

This is the start of the growing season where the buds burst from their dormant state. This signals the commencement of a new year. The shoots go through a rapid growth phase and then flowering occurs late in spring.

Summer

Is the time when the vines are working hard to develop and ripen the berries. We do have irrigation to our entire vineyard however we irrigate the vines as little as possible to assure premium grape quality.
Too much water dilutes the flavours in the berries and too little water stresses the vines, closing down the growth which affects the berry quality which once again brings us back to "Balance" . . . not too much and not too little. It is also the time of the year where canopy management, pest and disease monitoring take place.
Very little chemical spraying is done as we employ an organic foliar spray program that is applied weekly, as we prefer to use more natural methods to get a more natural berry. Our organic spray increases the vines health immensely and therefore they are more resistant to attack by pests and disease. This minimises the necessity to spray chemicals.

Autumn

This is harvest time or what we call "Vintage".

We are continuously walking through the vineyard monitoring sugar and acid levels and assessing favour profiles of the berries in order to pinpoint the exact time of harvest. We only pick when the weather is cool and dry which is a major factor in producing high quality wines. Birds are also experts at detecting berry ripeness in the grapes. This requires covering the entire vineyard in netting in order to keep these scallywags out. Big job ! ! !

Winter

Is the pruning season, which involves cutting off the previous years growth. When each vine is to be pruned, consideration is given to each individual vine on how it has grown the previous year, how much crop they produced and what the vine can support in the upcoming season.

This is called "pruning to vigour" and is all about balance within the vineyard.

We limit our pruning team to 3 people. Two pruners make the cuts and one person pulls out the canes laying them in the middle of each row so that they can be removed from the vineyard and subsequently burnt. This practice reduces the amount of pathogens within the vineyard for the following vintage.