Pertaringa Vineyards is located in McLaren Vale where grapes have been grown and wines have been produced since 1838. The McLaren Vale region is bordered by the city of Adelaide to the north, the Adelaide Hills to the east, Sellicks Hill Range to the south and the Gulf of St Vincent to the west. Pertaringa Vineyards lies in the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges (part of the Adelaide Hills) a slightly higher altitude than most of McLaren Vale with a maritime influence from the nearby ocean.
This is the perfect location for grape growing with the temperate environment and the deep clay and loam soils. The soils, which are overlaying with small pebbles, provide good drainage and water retention properties.
The vineyard was planted in 1970 primarily to Shiraz and in 1980 Ian Leask and Geoff Hardy purchased the Pertaringa Vineyard. Moving with market demand they decided to graft some of the vines to Chardonnay, which became an instant success. They also expanded the existing vineyard by planting Cabernet Sauvignon and Semillon.
Since that time the vineyard has grown to a total of 31 hectares, still primarily planted to Shiraz. Following is a list of varieties by hectare.
Cabernet Sauvignon - 2ha
Chardonnay - 4 ha
Muscat Blanc (Frontignac) - .5 ha
Pinot Noir - 4.5 ha
Riesling - 3 ha
Shiraz - 13 ha
Semillon - 3 ha
Sauvignon Blanc - 1 ha
The use of weather stations and moisture monitors enables us to maintain a level of controlled stress on the vines. This technology lets us know exactly when the vines need water for their important growing periods, primarily during flowering, fruit set and verasion. We are currently running trials in parts of the vineyard with Partial Rootzone Drying. This waters part of the root while allowing another part to dry out maintaining some stress levels.
The vines are trellised according to the specific needs of each variety. Most of the varieties are two-wire vertical shoot positioned while some of the others are three-wire vertical shoot positioned. This is done to make it easier to harvest as well as create the ideal microclimate for the berries. All the vines are pruned in order to control vigour and crop levels using a combination of hand pruning and mechanical pruning depending on the variety. In the summer the vines are topped and trimmed cutting the shoot tips off to encourage lateral growth and make the vines easier to access.
Pertaringa Vineyard is surrounded by magnificent stands of native gum trees. It is important at Pertaringa that we are in balance with the environment and we have taken many steps to maintain the balance. Staff at Pertaringa, together with volunteers from Greening Australia's Bushcare have planted native trees and have revegetated and rehabilitated the creek that runs through the vineyard. Other environmentally minded decisions made at Pertaringa are to include Integrated Pest Management to pests. An example of this is to use bacteria, rather than insecticides, to control Light Brown Apple Moths and Vine Moths that can damage both the vine leaf and the grape bunch. The use of Seaweed and other natural sprays have been used in the vineyard as alternatives to chemical based sprays.
Harvest is the busiest time of year in the vineyard. Berry and bunch sampling with lab analysis let us know when the grapes are ready for the specified wine style. Irrigation is reduced to the bare minimum allowing the varietal flavours to intensify. Most of the grapes are machine harvested, and always at night to ensure swift delivery to the winery during the coolest hours of the early morning (minimising oxidation).
The vineyard management at Pertaringa guarantees the highest quality grapes for all the grape buyers. This is evident with the continual demand for the grapes from Pertaringa Vineyard from Australia's top wine producers. The vineyard manager and the winemaker select premium parcels of the vineyard for the Pertaringa Wines, ensuring that each vintage will be of the highest quality.
