Wine Making
Dino Giammarino has been exposed to vineyards and wine making since the age of 6. Recently he has taken over more of the wine making duties whilst his parents Vittoria and Nicoletta Giammarino meticulously attend to the vineyard. It is truly our belief that our wines are a reflection of the efforts we put into the vineyard each year along with emphasis we place on the health of our soils which are the life line to our vines.
Our Methods
Where possible we make all efforts to utilise gravity to move our wines from ferment tanks to press, to barrels to bottling line in an effort to preserve all the aromas and palate qualities obtained through each process.
Our Barrels
The choice of barrels is such a paramount one when wine making. The balance between the barrels we choose to utilise and the final expression of our wines after spending 10-12 months in these barrels is a delicate balance.
Hand Harvest
With the amount of effort we place in the vineyard through out the entire year, when the fruits of our dedicated work are to ready to be harvested we choose to hand harvest all of our grapes. The diversity of conversations between pickers on these days makes it worth while as people who have not met each other before get to introduce them selves and hopefully make new companions from the day.
Our Helpers
Our vineyard relies so heavily on the belief and assistance of others, who help us attend to the vineyard needs. We have a wonderful group of people that devote their energies to keeping our farm as sustainable as possible.
The Estate
Our Vineyards
It has always been our belief that the care for the land we farm is of up most importance. An understanding of how we can provide back to the land in a way that naturally compliments what we harvest from it. Appreciating that it may be that all that we need to nourish our vineyard is within our farm, whether that be by composting, mulching and or by the preparation of fertilising compost teas. The adoption of these principle has allowed that our land and the produce from it are kept sustainable.
Heat degree days
Yarra Valley 1352. Mornington Peninsula 1570
Growing Season
Bud Burst September. Harvest March- April
Pruning Methods
All vines are caned pruned
Farming Principles
Those past down from those before
Soil
The geology of the Yarra Valley in comparison to our Mount Martha Mornington Peninsula vineyard are so diverse. Parcels of the Yarra Valley consists of very old sedimentary rock along with light-textured duplex soils whereas the soils of Mt Martha Vineyard are formed on granite parent material and consist of light grey gritty sandy loam, over mottled yellow brown and grey clay. These differences are evident in our wines.
Climate
Both the Yarra Valley and the Mornington Peninsula vineyards have what can be considered as cool climates with a slow ripening season allowing the development of the complex and elegant flavours we strive to achieve. The main difference between the two sites would be the influence of the sea breeze experienced in Mount Martha which can be beneficial to reduce vine stress in the warmer ripening months of summer.
Grape Varieties
The choices we have made in respect to the varieties we are growing hinge largely upon past family practices and a desire to continue the course with these varieties to see what the future will bring us. Not only are there numerous different “ clones’’ for a variety but the response of each to the land they are planted in is also so varying. We believe that this is one of the most influential factors in the creation of our wines and finding this balance is part of our journey.
Sun
This influence is described as Heat Degree Days and is calculated by taking the difference between 10˚C and the mean temperature of the growing months October to April then, multiplying that difference by the number of days in those months, and then adding together the resultant figures for each of the seven months. Our Mornington Peninsula vineyard has a HDD value of 1570 degrees whilst for Yarra Valley it is 1352 degrees.
Pruning Method
One of the most important processors in the vineyard is that of pruning which is undertaken during the winter months when vines are dormant. We adopt what is known as the “Cane Prune” method whereby we choose a healthy dormant shoot from the previous growing season to keep as the Cane to bear fruit for the next vintage and the remainder of canes on the dormant vine are then pruned and discarded to be used as mulch within the vineyard rows.
Winery
The winery in Healesville can be described as being the other lung of our operation that works alongside our vines. Of late we have been experimenting with minimising the use of pumps within the wine making process, which has led to some interesting inventions to elevate all ferment tanks and barrels to allow for wines to be gravity fed as part of the wine making process in lieu of using pumps.
Our Label
Below is a description of the different graphic elements that have been incorporated to form our label. In an effort to grasp the generations before us and hopefully to embrace what we are trying to express presently.
The shield -broken up into three sections to represent the beautiful landscape of Abruzzo where our wine making first commenced.
The sections represent:
- Snow
- Woods
- Sea
The tower – symbolic of the tower that exists in the small town in which the original vineyard was near which played as an important monument.
The wolf – represents the guardian of our vines and wines.
The bearing fruit – a representation of the vintages past, present and in the future.