Barley Stacks Winery: Amber enjoys a drop in the Yorke Penisula region of South Australia
The Yorke Peninsula is known for the spectacular scenery of Innes National Park at the tip of the toe. From the air it's one of the most spectacular parts of the peninsula offering plenty of scenery, history and a challenge or two for the adrenaline junkie.
The old ketch ports are popular too - especially at holiday time. But these sleepy towns were born of plenty of hard yakka inland as farmers harvested their grain. Wheat and barley remain the staple of South Australia's cropping sector with the Yorke Peninsula renown for producing some of the world's best malting barley.
But for the last decade or so there's been another much sought after product reaped from the soils of the Yorke Peninsula. Welcome to Barley Stacks Winery - a green oasis among the wheat fields.
The band of deep green vines almost looks out of place against the paddocks of sunbaked crops. Barley Stacks is the first and only commercial vineyard to be established in the traditional barley belt about 14 kilometres south of Maitland. The winemaker is John Zilm who we last caught up with when he was running Craneford Winery and Zilm's Gourmet Cafe at Truro. A decade on, the beard's gone and the hair's a tad greyer, but John's enthusiasm for a challenge is as strong as ever.
John Zilm, Barley Stacks Wines: "Our vines are planted further apart than what you normally see in areas like the Barossa. They are actually three metres apart here and the reason for that is simply because we don't have the water to sustain the vineyard if they were any closer."
Water is currently pumped 250 kilometres from Swan Reach and carefully delivered by a dripper system but there are plans to cover 2 hectares of surrounding land with plastic to capture enough rainfall to sustain the 10 hectares of vines. It was the combination of the unique climate and soil type that attracted John to the Peninsula.
John Zilm, Barley Stacks Wines: "There's underground water here, this is a soil type very similar to Coonawarra - it's grey loam over limestone. There are two climates here too. There's the maritime climate and also the Mediterranean climate, which is typically South Australian. It was that maritime climate that makes it very interesting to grow fruit here."
The range of wines includes Shiraz, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a crisp little Chardonnay which John says benefits from that maritime climate.
John Zilm, Barley Stacks Wines: "The flavours you'll get out of the Chardonnay are more citrus flavours, more grapefruit, fig and nut characters. I've made it keeping in mind the seafood on the peninsula. So it goes very, very well with seafood risotto and that style of food."
Barley Stacks is now owned by local farmers, Lyall and Cynthia Schultz who bought the winery late last year and they say it compliments their more traditional operation.
Lyall Schulz, Barley Stacks Wines: "It's something we think will fit into quite well with our cereal growing. Our busy time for harvest is into the Nov-Dec period when we're harvesting our crops and picking the grapes will come around in the January, Feb, March time."
The unusual name and label means a lot to Lyall too. It features the familiar map of the peninsula and on the back is a photo of the giant barley stack that once stood in the very paddock that's now under vines. It harks back to the days when stacks like this were common throughout the peninsula before the age of bulk handling.
And there is a certain synergy in the label too - barley is usually associated with beer - now those very same paddocks are producing grapes destined for fine wine. Barley Stacks Winery is about two hours drive from Adelaide, 14 kilometres south of Maitland on the Minlaton Road. The Cellar Door is open 7 days a week.
Barley Stacks Winery
Via Maitland
14 kms South of Maitland
Ph: 8834 1258Published 23rd August 2009
