PIPERS BROOK, Winemaker
The Brook Eden vineyard is sited along a ridge of deep, free-draining basalt soil on a small, North and East facing hill in the Pipers Brook region of North East Tasmania.
Consisting of four vineyard blocks that total 3Ha of closely-planted vines. Three blocks were planted in 1988 by John and Sheila Bezemer with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris, and one block planted early 2015 by Annette and Ed Ferrero with Pinot Noir and Lagrein.
All vines are planted on own roots, but for the curious single row of Semillon, planted by the original owners (presumably as a trial) which has been grafted over to Pinot Noir clone D5V12.
The Chardonnay is 8127, but expresses itself quite differently, on the more vigorous, higher RAW value soils of the Bottom block, than on the Top block near the cellar door.
The Pinot Noir is a mixture of 4 clones, 3 delightfully upright ones which give little trouble with shoot positioning and one which is worse than Chardonnay on a bad hair day. Clones are D5V12a; G5V15; 0013; and 0014. These are all clones from the 1960’s which we’re probably imported for their propensity for sparkling wine production, but the entire combination has merit for table wine, as proven in 2005 with the Trophy winner, in 2008 when our Pinot won several gold medals, in 2012 with James Halliday awarding 96 points to our Pinot Noir.
The Pinot Gris, which replaced a small planting of Cabernet Sauvignon in 2006, is all D1V7.
Late in 2014 a Hectare of new vines was planted. This is on a gently sloping block to the south of our top Chardonnay block. Plantings are Pinot Noir, with Able and 115 clones, and Lagrein – a new addition to the vineyard and probably to Tasmania.
The vineyard has been managed organically from 2008 to 2013. More recently it has moved to sustainable viticulture where low-toxicity herbicides are used under the vine rows and it is strived to maintain low-impact, mostly organic practices for other vine management needs.
