OUR story so far…

We are Adriana and Al – organic grape growers and winemakers at Bandicoot Run, our little farm in West Gippsland, Victoria.

Bandicoot Run was born out of the desire to work more closely with nature and the ebb and flow of the seasons. Established in 2017 with the expansion of the half-acre vineyard on Al’s family farm in West Gippsland, we now farm 7 acres of vines, organically and with a focus on biodiversity and building healthy soil microbiology.

The property was purchased in the early 90’s – part of a subdivided dairy farm and bare of much diversity of life except for a handful of gnarly old eucalypts in the back paddocks. This quickly changed with thousands of endemic species established across the property over the next couple of decades, creating shelter belts and habitat for bird and animal life which returned to the property soon after and continue to do so in increasing numbers each year.

Not all the plantings were indigenous however – such as the fruit tree orchards or the few short rows of Syrah that were planted by Al’s old man in 2005 and then several more rows of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the years following.

We became interested in what was happening in the vineyard while we were studying architecture from 2010-2015, spending our summers amongst the vines and getting our mates down to help out with the modest harvest each year. After a couple years working in architecture though, we decided that we wanted to make a lifestyle change that supported our values and pursue organic farming and winemaking. A few years working in wineries and vineyards on the Mornington Peninsula later, and the question was inevitably posed: would it be possible to expand our little vineyard?

It didn’t take much convincing but that’s probably because we didn’t have the foresight to see the challenges in establishing just under 3 hectares organically and with little outside help.  Over the winter of 2017 we planned out the new blocks, prepared the soil, put in vineyard posts, ran kilometers of wire and finally planted 7000 new vines with the help of our beautiful friends and family. And we now know that was the easy part…

The majority of the new vineyard is planted out to Pinot Noir with the remainder made up of Chardonnay, Syrah, Viognier and Tempranillo. We live and work on site, with the winery shed and house all within meters of the vineyard and integrated with the orchards, veggie gardens and native vegetation plantings which extend like fingers between the vineyard blocks. These plantings create connections for our indigenous species, especially our population of endangered Southern Brown Bandicoots, which have visibly thrived since establishing the vineyard.

We also share the property with our animals, most importantly our dog “San” but also our breeding herd of Hereford cows, chickens, ducks and several beehives. We’re also planning to get some sheep into the vineyard in the future to help keep the grass down over winter and contribute to the system.

We had decided from the beginning that we wanted to farm our site organically and in the most regenerative way possible, as this is a core belief and something important to our world view. This amounts to a lot of meticulous (and often backbreaking) manual work in the vineyard but we feel that if we put care and love in, it will be reciprocated. And so far it has, with our first two wine releases being full of life and expression.

Every aspect of the farming of the site is completed by us, with attention to detail being extremely important. Being a two person band means that days spent outside the vineyard are a rarity, but it also means that we have come to intimately know and understand our vines and we are continuing to learn about our site each and every day.

This philosophy also extends to the winemaking, with fruit being hand picked in the cool of the morning, processed without additives, left to undergo natural fermentation and finally bottled by hand on site, unfined and unfiltered with only a small amount of sulfur. We have also made our first zero sulfur wines in 2021 and are excited about the prospect of heading more in this direction.

THE VINES

Our property is located on fertile loamy alluvial top soils, over layers of silt and gravel with fragments of granite and quartz scattered throughout, which is sitting over deep yellow and grey clay - basically the decomposed hillsides which surround us. The clay layer has great water holding capabilities which means that the established vines on the property are extremely resilient and as such have been dry grown for the last 5 or so years.

As well as being farmed organically, we are also focusing on building healthy soil microbiology and soil food web through regular application of compost tea sprays and other organic nutrients with the intention of getting our vines as healthy as possible to increase their own disease resistance. We have never sprayed or cultivated the soil under vine, preferring a natural balance to exist where the soil structure is maintained and insects and other organisms are able to thrive.

We are inland enough to have the benefit of cool nights throughout the growing season but also regularly get the benefit of afternoon sea breezes over summer, which contributes to slow ripening of our cool climate varietals.

The technical stuff:

We have 5 separate vineyard blocks on the property.  Our first block was planted between 2005-2009, containing Syrah, Chardonnay and MV6 Clone Pinot Noir.

The remaining 4 blocks were planted in 2017 and contain 7 clones of Pinot Noir (MV6, 777, Pommard, D5V12, 115, ENTAV 667 & 828), Chardonnay (E95, I10V5 & ENTAV 548), Syrah (EVOVS12 & R6WV28), Viognier and Tempranillo.

the WINES

The overriding principle in our winemaking is integrity. This means that we want to produce authentic wines that are a true expression of the growing season, the land and the people who made them. It sounds sounds like a cliché but it is true. We understand that great wines come from high quality fruit and as such most of our efforts are concentrated on the vineyard, with comparatively little done in the winery in terms of intervention. This mostly amounts to making decisions which allow the fruit to best express itself, such as vessel selection or maceration duration.

Our winemaking shed is located directly next to our vineyard, which means the fruit is hand picked in the cool of the morning and processed without ever having travelled more than a few hundred meters from the vines.

All our fermentation is completed with the natural yeasts from our vineyard and we do not make any additions to the wine, except for a small addition of sulfur prior to bottling (generally 15ppm) and we have even made our first zero sulfur wines in 2021 which is super exciting. We also aim to handle the wine as gently as possible, with most ferments being completed in open-top vessels and then manually basket pressed to either barrel or tank. We have generally found that a ratio of 50/50 old oak to stainless tank for élevage to be ideal for most of our wines, lending some subtle warmth and oxygen from the oak, without being too present and freshness and energy from the stainless tank portion.

We also do not use any filtration or fining on our wines and prefer to let the wines naturally settle, before they are bottled, labelled and waxed by hand on site.

Our wines are bottled under natural cork and we use a lightweight locally sourced bottle with a high recycled glass percentage and natural beeswax seal on top.

WREN KNIVES

Al has been hand crafting high carbon steel knives for about 5 years from his workshop at Bandicoot Run. Each knife is completely unique and one of a kind, with production being extremely small as it is mainly constrained to the off-season (over winter).

Currently all the blades are made from either 1084 carbon steel and handles are made from salvaged Australian hardwoods.

If you are interested in purchasing or having a custom knife made, give @wrenknives a follow on instagram or contact us through the email listed below.

CONTACT

For sales and inquiries please contact Al and Adriana via:

wine@bandicootrun.com.au