Should it be necessary to guess and take a chance, the following seem the best calculated risks, and are recorded as personal speculation based on my own experience:
(1) To have continuity, vineyards should have family owner-occupiers or an established management structure on larger plans.
(2) Nobody working for you is ever good enough. The best manure is the owner’s footprint.
(3) About 10 hectares is viable and convenient for a small, efficient operation, despite opinions to the contrary.
(4) When adequate income arrives, after about 10 years, ambition should not exceed about $40,000 annual income (1987 figures). The capital appreciation should be accepted as the chief reward. It could easily cost $1,000,000 to establish a small, well-equipped vineyard and winery (1987).
(5) Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon should be accepted as the most desirable varieties to plant in this region until experience proves otherwise. Hermitage, should suitable soils be available, shows signs of yielding superb wine. The grapes of the Bas-Rhone have yet to be tried. They could be a good bet. The best planting distance is 3.5m x 1.5m. A Carbonneau “lyre” trellis will almost certainly prove ideal.
(6) All red wine should be made in new, small French oak casks each year. The casks should not be stored with SO2 aqueous solution. They should be kept full of wine. If that is impossible, they should be washed, drained, treated with a sulphur ring and hosed down externally every two weeks in a cool cellar. New casks increase the price of wine by $2 per bottle.
(7) Small wineries should use prepared yeasts and not grow up their own yeast cultures.
(8) The wine should be filtered as little as possible. It can originally be cleaned up by fining and age in insulated containers.
(9) The best attitude to secondly bacterial fermentation (‘malolactic’) has yet to be established. It is important. Malic acid levels in Margaret River grapes are unusually high, probably a function of soil water and the vine canopy.
(10) The wine farmers should avoid any close association with blatant publicity. It is a two-edged sword. Premium wines created their own aura if they deserve it.
(11) Regional Wine Origin Certification should be supported. If not the prestige and profit of the region are at risk. The present taxation structure makes wine-farmers reluctant to have their crop and stocks inspected.
(12) If you can’t make wine simply, from clean fruit, don’t make it at all.
Part Eleven:
Desirable Future Directions
