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Our composting program is a big part of our sustainability goals, allowing us to ‘give back” to our soils in a very natural way.  Healthy soils lead to healthy vines, and healthy vines produce balanced fruit and vibrant fermentations.

The compost cycle is fundamental to life on earth, and fascinating to understand.  In a well-functioning natural system (somewhat simplified):

• Animals feed off plants.
• Animal waste and other dead plant material are decomposed by microbiology into their raw constituents.
• Another set of microbiology (“humifying” microbiology) then creates short and long chain humus (a clay/organic complex) that serves as a resilient and long term storage of nutrients.
• A further set of microbiology, fed by sugar and other stimulants from plants, then breaks down the humus to release nutrients to feed the plant

This last step is crucial, and is the fundamental difference between natural and conventional farming systems.   Conventional agriculture feeds the plant directly though the use of artificial nutrients (often mined or created as the by-product of industrial processes), bypassing the first steps in the cycle.  While this can be a cost effective practice in the short term, it can do significant environmental damage, including acidifying the soil, breaking down soil structure, reducing soil carbon and increasing the chances of damaging nutrient runoff.  Pre-settlement reserves of long and short chain humus in agricultural soils were quickly depleted, and now generally replaced by artificial substitutes. 

At Yarrh, we’ve gone some way to replicating (and accelerating) the natural nutrient cycle by introducing a composting program.  We use winery waste (eg stalks, skins, seeds from the vintage), manures, straw, green waste and a little clay, to produce a highly humified compost (replicating Steps 2-3 above), then spread this through the vineyard.  This composting process takes about 6 weeks, and first goes through a breakdown process (Step 2) for about 2 weeks, then through a build up process (Step 3) where humus is created, and a stable state reached. 

When spread in the vineyard the cycle continues, with soil macro and micro biology incorporating the compost into the soil and reacting to stimulants from plants to release nutrients (Step 4).  Rather than force feeding the vines, we allow them to decide what they want and when they want it.

We don’t yet have a fully functioning natural system, but the place is certainly looking a lot healthier and happier over the decade we’ve been doing this.  The vines are strong, worms thrive, clovers go mad, and our soil’s water holding capacity buffers us from dry and hot conditions.  We still need to supplement the natural system at times, but at much lower rates than we’d done in the past - mainly a small, well timed shot of nitrogen in late spring when vine demand peaks.

Come out and taste the difference!

After a decade or so of conventional growing (heavy reliance of artificial fertilisers, herbicides, chemical pesticides) we noticed that our soils were deteriorating, and our vines were requiring more and more inputs to stay in shape – we were chasing our tail.

While the dogmatism (and bureaucracy) of pure organic growing didn’t appeal to us, we knew there was much to be learned from more traditional forms of farming, and modern adaptations of these practices.  To my grandfather, a dairy famer in southern Western Australia, recycling manure back onto grazing paddocks was simply the way things were done.

So we spent some time looking at what others were doing in both viticulture and broader agriculture to improve soil health and sustainability.  It’s a jungle (pun intended!) out there!  SO MANY OPINIONS, so little proof, so many with something to sell, but some common themes begin to emerge, and some elemental truths revealed themselves:

• Stop feeding the plant directly, and allow the plant to feed itself
• Nurture biodiversity
• Build your soil carbon (and hence soil structure)
• Intervene only when necessary

Although it sounds simple, this takes a while to work through, and apply to your own land, crop and circumstances.  Goals are one thing, putting practices in place to achieve them is another.   Over a number of years, we put in place:

• Permanent Vineyard Sward – nurture soil microbiology and create a home for “beneficials”
• Composting Program – accelerate the natural carbon cycle, boost soil microbiology, allow the vines to feed themselves, recycle “waste”
• Minimise artificial inputs – reduce impact on soil microbiology and other “beneficials” and improve sustainability by minimising the use of herbicides, artificial fertilisers and harsh pesticides.

The last one seems to be the most controversial – you’ll notice it says “minimise” not “eliminate”.  We now use less than 10% of the herbicide we used to use, mainly to control invasive weeds such as blackberry and serrated tussock (a huge problem for local graziers).  In a dry year, we may use an early season contact herbicide on some blocks to keep competition for resources (water, nutrients) down for the vines.  While this isn’t pure organics, it certainly reduces our diesel use!

It’s been almost a decade since we put these practices in place - so what’s changed?  Has it been worth the effort?   There have been some setbacks (Cabernet DOES NOT LIKE competition for water and nutrients), but on the whole we have seen a huge leap in vine health and fruit quality.  The most visible signs are:

• Vines that find their own balance (fruit/leaf ratio) in any given year – time spent looking after the soil is offset by less time spent mucking around with canopies.
• Vineyard resilience – improved soil structure and water holding capacity means the vines are able to deal with dry spells and hot conditions much better.
• Improved biodiversity – the vineyard is full a bees, moths, bugs, spiders, lizards, and heathy soil microbiology quickly breaks down organic matter.
• More vibrant wines (now we’re getting to the relevance!)– flavours, colour, sugar and acid are coming together earlier, resulting in more flavourful, better balanced wines.

A friend of ours, interested in what we do, said “so if you’re not organic, and your definitely not bio-dynamic, what are ya?”.  I think we’re rational farmers who want to produce the highest quality wines we can, while leaving our soils and farm in better shape for the next generation.  But that’s hard to put into a natty label, isn’t it?

Best way is to come out and taste the difference for yourself.  We love people who care not only how their wine tastes but how its made!

From our Spring 2011 newsletter The Tin Shed:

I was at a second hand book store last week and bought some old lifestyle magazines. Why? Because I like to see how we saw ourselves in the past and how we have changed, or not as the case may be.

These magazines were about 10 to 12 years old, and I have to say food wise we haven’t changed much at all. Baby fennel, goats cheese, chorizo, bags of mixed lettuce are just as fashionable now as they were then.

One tag line on a front cover made me scoff – “Why Pre-mixed Drinks Have Had Their Day” What a bold statement. Pity it hasn’t come to pass.  I’ll put that up there with “Child Poverty will be a Thing of the Past”.

What I did find interesting was the changes in wine. In an article on the top wines under $20 (even better value now) headings included Riesling, Chardonnay and Miscellaneous Whites and Reds. And guess what was under Miscellaneous Whites – Sauvignon Blanc! Not miscellaneous anymore as last year it became the top selling white in Australia, making up 30% of white wine sales. Pinot Noir was a Miscellaneous Red – again a surprise for only 10-12 years ago.

FW

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The Tin Shed

From the Archives

2011

Food and Wine

From our 2014 Newsletter The Tin Shed.  We held several sourdough demonstrations, and I like to think there’s a few still at it out there!

While on a road trip in the US last year, we visited the Russian River wine region of California and while browsing a bookshop in Healdsburg (as you do) picked up a CD copy of Michael Pollan’s “Cooked – A Natural History of Transformation”.  It was great listening on long car trips - an exhaustive history on why we cook our food the way we do.  We were, of course, immediately attracted to his section on fermentation in all its various guises.

The discussion on bread, and sourdough bread in particular, caught our attention.  We’ve been making our own bread for ages but we had not taken the next step of “wild fermentation” breads, as we have with our red wines.  Michael introduced us to Chad Robertson and his life’s mission to make bread with soul - the perfect country loaf.  I love the painting (opposite) by Emile Friant (1888) that inspired Chad’s mission.

Similarly inspired, I’ve been mucking around with Chad’s instructions for making a basic country loaf in his book “Tartine Bread”.  After many tasty but somewhat dense test loaves, we’ve hit on an approach that works well with our local flours, and even includes a secret ingredient!  A few other important points:

steam is critical to baking good bread

managing the fermentation well is the most important skill to develop

sourdough doesn’t have to be that sour (in fact “sourdough” is a bit of a misnomer)

sourdough starters are simple to manage

small changes in approach can make a big difference to the results

you need to develop a feel for your dough and be flexible

It’s been fun, and we’d love to share some of our bread recipes with you – Fiona makes a great ciabatta too.  Learn how to make basic sourdough bread (or bring along your own bread and share your secrets!) at our winter solstice celebration – bookings required!

NM

We enjoy growing our own food.   Living and working in the same place (and having plenty of space) makes it somewhat easier for us than for most, but it still takes a concerted effort to make it worthwhile.  This year we grew tomatoes (five months of fresh tomatoes!), cucumbers, zucchini, beans, potatoes, figs, garlic, chillies, spring onions, artichokes, radish, silver beet, lettuce, kohlrabi.

Herbs, too – parsley, mint, basil (fresh pesto!), tarragon, dill, Vietnamese mint, lemon grass, oregano, thyme, sage, bay, rosemary.  What a treat it is to go grab some fresh herbs when cooking, and what a difference it makes to your dishes.  In fact, if you could grow nothing else, herbs are where you get the most bang for your buck.

And finally, chickens.  We’ve kept about four Isa Browns for many years now and the eggs are fantastic.  Not only do chickens recycle your kitchen scraps (can be hard to properly manage in a composting system) into more food, but also produce excellent manure for the veggie patch.

Growing your own food has benefits beyond flavour and freshness:

• You get some good exercise!
• Your more mindful of what is seasonal and cook/eat in a more seasonal fashion
• Your respect for farmers increases, knowing what it takes to grow good food
• You’re more thankful for the range of fruit and veg you can get at your local market/supermarket
• Your ability to pick good produce from bad/ordinary/old/decaying produce increases
• You get closer to the season – you pay much more attention to what’s going on around you – mindfulness…
• You realise how difficult it must have been to live in a truly self-sufficient way, and how hard it would have been to get through winter/spring with a full belly

With the wine, vegetables, herbs, eggs, our own lamb and beef (thanks neighbour Dave!), and olive oil on the way, we’re truly appreciative of the benefits of growing your own.  Now for the orchard….

NM and FW

An excerpt from our 2016 newsletter.  After some further local research, we selected Fiano, partly because we can see it suiting our climate, partly because it’s a beautiful wine, and partly because it’s an anagram of Fiona!  Looking forward to a small crop in 2020:

A warmer 2016 vintage reminded us that we need to think of the future, and perhaps the wines of southern Italy might be worth a closer look.  Abruzzo, Campagna and Sicily were our targets – well south but the better wines are grown in the cooler, higher regions on the mainland, and with coastal influence in areas of Sicily.

Wine highlights of the trip:

• Fiano – a lovely soft, rounded wine white, highly fragrant, beautifully textured, could make a good addition to the stable.
• Greco di Tufo – a wine makers wine, restrained, high acidity, citrus, highly reminiscent of a nice, dry Riesling.
• Aglianico – we’ve tried a few good Australian examples, and it didn’t disappoint, quite tannic when young, tarry, liquorice, a big wine, often blended with something a bit softer. Memorable due to the lady who made our lunch being born in Canberra and returning to Taurasi (Campagna) when she was 13.  Best antipasti!
• Montelpuciano – widely planted, and made young and fresh through to dark and brooding. Cherry, plum, drying tannins, lean and structured.
• Nero d’Avola – gaining momentum in Australia, makes Sicily’s only DOCG wine – Cerasuolo di Vittoria – when blended with Frappato.  Full bodied, smooth, ages well, a bit like shiraz.  We visited COS in Vittoria where they are fermenting and aging some wines in buried amphora.

Of course, the wine is only half the story.  The local cheeses, breads, pastas, salamis, prosciutto, seafood (it was tuna season!), and game meats were superb.  And the coffee – addictive short blacks for about $1.50.  Absolute standouts – fresh cheeses of Abruzzo, aged cheeses of Sicily, the original buffalo mozzarella from around Naples, chestnut pasta in Abruzzo, Bisteccia Florentina in a Tuscan restaurant in Rome, fresh anchovies stuffed with mozzarella in Sicily, boned (!) rabbit wrapped in prosciutto and poached in wine.  Also great – all this was reasonably priced (OK except for the Bisteccia).

NM

If you think about wine as just another form of sustenance (albeit a pretty special one) it’s interesting to consider that the skills of the fine food maker (chef) and the fine winemaker (vigneron) are remarkably similar.

In the winery and kitchen, a similar use of senses, skill and creativity comes into play.  Crushing the fruit is like chopping, slicing, dicing, deboning – beginning the transformation of form and shape.  Fermentation is like a cooking process, where questions of marination, extraction, temperature, duration, mixing/turning, settling/resting are all vital to achieving the desired outcome.  The maturation, fining and filtering (or not) carried out by the winemaker are like the final adjustments, seasoning and plating up of the chef, balancing visual and taste impact to maximise enjoyment.  Some of this is following the recipe and being disciplined, but a lot of this, with really exceptional wine and food, comes down to the creativity and imagination of the chef/vigneron.

And really good kitchens care about what happens BEFORE the raw ingredients enter the kitchen and the provenance of their food, a concept intrinsic to winemaking and encapsulated in the term “terroir”.  Traditionally, great chefs have always been close to their suppliers, often going past distributors and wholesalers straight to the grower.  Neil Perry and Kylie Kwong have strong and enduring relationships with their suppliers of meat/seafood/vegetables.   A recent (very enjoyable) trip to Biota in Bowral confirmed their own extensive kitchen garden.  It seems that this trend continues to grow – maybe it’s the “River Cottage Effect”!

With wine making, you can’t always tell the quality of a wine grape just by assessing it as it rolls (forgive the pun) into the winery.  You really need to have seen it grow up – the state of the vines, the season, the canopy, the fruit load, the way the fruit ripened and developed, are all markers of the potential of the fruit.  This very close relationship between the vineyard and the winery, the grower and the maker, the season and the wine, are fundamental hallmarks of a great wine label.  Even if you don’t grow your own fruit, really good winemakers spend a lot of time in the vineyards of their growers.

In fact the term vigneron describes both a fine winemaker and someone who grows grapes for high quality wine production, emphasising the critical role of the vineyard.  Maybe there should be a similar term for a chef who really gets involved in the production of their raw ingredients?

Regardless, the parallels between great winemaking and great cooking are there, from farm to table.

NM

From our newsletter The Tine Shed in 2015.  In the last few years, the combo of Riesling and Thai food seems to have become widely accepted:

It’s sometimes difficult to find a match to more fiery foods, but Riesling seems to know no bounds as a delicious accompaniment to Asian food, including the hot stuff.  From sweet and rich Peking Duck pancakes to fiery Thai dishes, it just seems to keep working.

Last night we made some Indonesian style chicken sates, and my favourite peanut sauce.  The marinade for the chicken included a hefty dose of fresh red chillies and the sauce another hefty dose of crushed, dried chillies.  The Riesling saw through all that and picked up the lemon grass beautifully, cutting through the richness of the peanut sauce and mellowing the heat.  That was with the 2011 Riesling, which has quite a bit of body and deep lemon/lime fruit.

It even stands up well to Thai heat.  Recently we rediscovered one of David Thompson’s earlier works on Thai cuisine – “Thai Food”, and have been busily working our way through it.  He reminds us that Thais often turn things on their head – a sauce like nahm prik is the centre of the meal, then everything else (including meat dishes) become an accompaniment to the sauce.  It’s subtle, but makes you think differently about how to put a meal together.

It’s hard to think of a hotter sauce than nahm prik.  Its basic form of garlic, salt, shrimp paste, chillies, palm sugar, lime juice and fish sauce has endless variations, but almost always the flavours are very strong and very hot, with balance (“hot, salty, slightly sour and slightly sweet”) critical, and the shrimp paste central.  Accompanied by seasonal raw or steamed vegetables, or pickled vegetables, it’s a refreshing delight.  Accompany it with grilled fish or pork and it becomes a more substantial part of a meal, or a meal in itself.

Nahm prik is exactly the sort of food that has traditionally been avoided at all costs by wine buffs, believing that ingredients like chillies and shrimp paste kill the wine.  Certainly, you can lose some of the subtle notes of the wine, but I think this is more than made up for by the way a wine like Riesling finds friends in the complexities of the sauce, adding citrus notes and cleansing the palate.  We’ve recently tried several versions of nahm prik with the current release 2015 Riesling and found the match sensational, particularly with well grilled or pan fried fish.

But the really great thing about Riesling?  If you can’t be bothered cooking anything, or even heading out to let someone else cook for you, Riesling is wonderful just by itself!  Otherwise, see if the recipes at the end of this newsletter inspire you to a Riesling vs heat cook off.

From our newsletter in October 2016.  Mr Natural has been a natural ever since:

Our new offering, Mr Natural Shiraz, has been a few years in the making, but is now doing particularly well, both wholesale and cellar door.

It’s unoaked, made from our 1654 clone with no additives or adjustments, apart from a small amount of sulphur (about a third of usual) at bottling to protect it.  While it has a few rough edges as a result, it has lovely round fruit and nicely balanced acid, tannin and spice.  It also has an interesting smokiness that people are attracted to.

Chris Shanahan said in the Canberra Times – “Bottled young and fresh, with no oak maturation, the medium-bodied red shows the lovely ripe-berry and spice character of Canberra shiraz in a soft, juicy drink-now style.”

Nick Bullied MW and Mike Bennie said in the Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine – “Shows great depth of dark berry fruit on the nose with a black pepper overlay.  The palate’s full bodied yet supple, with exotic spices, and has good length.  Bennie agreed.  “Black cherry, berry compote, anise, sarsaparilla, sniff of cola, and a whiff of clove-like wood,” he said.  “Fleshy textured palate with juicy, generous mouth feel, cool finish, crisp tannins and a light, fine spritz keeping things interesting.”  They gave it 91/100.

It’s fascinating that an area so rich in seafoods, such as the Mediterranean, has a love affair with dried, salted cod, an import from the North Sea and northern European cuisines.  But love it they do, and have done for centuries, no doubt traded for local goods.  It would have been a good over-wintering source of protein.  It seems to have gone out of favour in many local delicatessens, but can still be found around the place.

We served this at our recent Spring lunch – a Languedoc inspired lunch.  As anticipated, it enticed a few aficionados out of the woodwork, and got a very good reception.

500g salt cod

200 ml good olive oil

200 ml milk, boiled then cooled

Salt, pepper

Salt cod, takes A LOT of rinsing to remove salt and soften it up.  If you don’t have a fresh water stream handy, put it in a large plastic container with a lid and cover with water.  Rinse and repeat, at least half a dozen times over 12-18 hours, holding it in the fridge.  If it hasn’t softened up by then, keep going.

Poach in simmering water for 5-6 minutes, then drain.

Shred the cod, removing any bones, fins, hardened edges, etc.  Mash the cod in a mortar and pestle or food processor (pulse it).  Gradually add half the oil, then half the milk, mashing/pulsing as you go.  Continue adding the oil/milk combo until the mixture is snow white, thick and shiny, and will take no more oil or milk.  Season well, but be careful with the salt.

It can be served as is, or shaped into quenelles, and put under the grill for a few minutes.  It will brown slightly, and the flavours will intensify.  Serve with toast triangles and cornichons or a simple salad.

My goodness, our 20^th anniversary!  Starting out as “Yass River Vineyard”, we planted our first vines, Cabernet Sauvignon, on 22 November 1997, in an old sheep paddock off a dirt road.  Three more plantings over the next three years saw the vineyard completed.  Six hectares were duly trained, watered, weeded and fed, giving us our first small crop in 2001.

Our first vintage was a small batch of Cabernet Sauvignon made with borrowed equipment in the garage.  Not bad for a first try, either.  Not sure that we have any left, which is always a good sign.

Next was the winery.  We wanted long term sustainability and a building that blended into the landscape, finally settling on a passive solar design featuring straw bale, rammed earth, and classic aussie corro.   It works well, not only as a place to make wine and serve our guests, but also as a magnificent bush retreat for friends and family.  How’s the serenity!  

We opened our doors in December 2004.  Friends, family, neighbours and colleagues gathered to witness our welcome to the land by Eric Bell (now deceased), one of our local aboriginal elders.  It was a moving ceremony, reminding us that we are just temporary custodians of this land within a timespan of profound immensity.

Some highlights over the years:

• Grafting in two new clones of Sangiovese, now some Fiano
• Exporting to China, Norway and Vietnam (although we now concentrate exclusively on the domestic market)
• Introducing a new label
• Transitioned to a hybrid conventional/organic farming regime
• Discovering the world of “natural” wines (or “natchies”)
• Being rated a 4 ½ star winery by James Halliday
• Helping Hartley Lifecare and our local bush fire brigade with their fundraising

And here’s a few rough numbers from the last 20 years:

• 13,000 vines planted, trained and managed
• 400 tonnes of grapes crushed
• 200,000 litres of wine bottled
• 500 tonnes of compost made
• A couple of thousand Wine Club packs delivered
• 30-40 medals awarded
• 33 wine festivals celebrated
• 90 monthly food and wine matching lunches served
• 13 winter solstice bonfires lit
• Thousands of happy (well, mostly!) customers, many now long term (thank you, you know who you are)

“Why do you do it?” people sometimes ask.  It’s not for fame and fortune, that’s for others.  It’s certainly tremendously satisfying to make award winning wines from our own vineyard, and see these wines bring so much joy to our customers. 

Maybe a better question is - does the world need Yarrh Wines?  We think so.  Delicious, food friendly, Canberra District wines, estate grown and bottled (paddock to plate, vineyard to bottle) made and presented without pretention, for a fair price – that’s a combination Australian wine lovers need.

Finally, a potted history of Yarrh wouldn’t be complete without an acknowledgement of our past partners – Peter McGregor (now deceased) as an early partner in our vineyard venture, and Peta and Chris MacKenzie Davey (now trying to retire!), who took the leap of faith from their cosy cottage in Leeds, UK, to set off on their own adventure in the wilds of Murrumbateman, Australia.  Then of course there is our beautiful daughter Julia, who’s grown up at Yarrh, and in her gap year is now pruning vineyards across the district.  Thanks to all!

 NM and FW