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ABOUT OUR VITICULTURE

Viticulture is fundamental to the making of fine Pinot Noir. We see ourselves as vignerons, or winegrowers, so that our focus is upon revealing the best from our vineyards by playing close attention to viticultural detail.

The vines were initially planted on a grid of 2.00m vine space and 2.75m row space. They are spur pruned VSP with the cordon about 1m high. Last year we converted 3.5 acres to a vine space of 1.0 m (the rows will remain at 2.75 metres). We are doing this to asses in the longer term whether reducing the yield per vine improves wine quality and the expression of the intrinsic qualities of the vines. The clones, selected with care, are MV6, G5V15, 114, 115 and 777.

The conversion was done by the ancient technique called layering. We see in the modern vineyards of the new and the old world that the vines are lined up in neat rows. The sense of order that this sight evokes makes it tempting to think that vineyards have always been organised in this way. In fact they were not. The vineyards of 16^th century Burgundy, for example, were sprawled and rambling. They were worked by manual labour and not by machine, in many cases not even by horse. They belonged

to the aristocracy or the church, so they were tended in the main by peasants or monks. We owe these working people much.

These vineyards were expanded in this fascinating way we call layering. When it was necessary to fill a space, a one year old cane was taken and partly dug under the ground. The top of the cane was left exposed to the sun. Imagine an umbilical cord from the mother-vine being used to create a daughter-vine nearby. The system worked brilliantly. The mother supported the daughter in the early years when the root system was growing. A new vine rapidly grew. When the young vine was mature, if the workers got around to it, the cord was cut.

We made this change because we decided that we wanted to reduce the yield per vine, ie increase the density. In particular, we wanted to increase the root density: more roots per vine, more roots per bunches, better expression of the intrinsic qualities of the vineyard. What better way to do it than by layering as the ancients did? In Garamond and part of Homage, we now have vines one metre apart created by taking a cane from the adjacent mother-vine and growing up a new vine as above. We have not cut the umbilical cord yet, so these vines can still be seen. Mother and daughter vines are thriving and their fruit supplies an increasing proportion of Hurley Vineyard Pinot Noir.

We are committed to a number of viticultural principles: non-irrigation, low vineyard yields (1-2 tonnes per acre), low vine yields (0.5-1kg per vine), not pushing young vines, complete respect for wine character that is expressive of the vineyard terroir, low chemical use in the vineyard and the maintenance of open vine canopies by consistent work on the vines throughout the season (including shoot and bunch thinning and leaf plucking as appropriate). These principles reflect our respect for the great winemaking traditions of Burgundy as adapted to our conditions in the New World.

We also have underway a substantial landscaping and renewal program of replanting indigenous species of plants using stock grown from seeds of local provenance.