Vines
Although there were some existing old vine plantings on the property, planting new vineyards meant that a scientific approach could be taken. Blocks were carefully selected for their orientation and aspect along with the four different clones of Shiraz that go into the premium Hentley Farm range. Walking through our vineyards you will find Shiraz (70%), Grenache (17%), Zinfandel (2%), Cabernet Sauvignon (10%) and a small block of Viognier (0.5%) which were planted shortly after purchasing the property.

Hentley Farm is very aware of the restrictions around water supply, and has developed the vineyard to only have varieties which are well adapted to Barossa's drier conditions. Whilst the vines are all less than 15 years of age, the quality of wine produced demonstrates the importance of regional terroir. At Hentley Farm we have been implementing our dry land farming strategy with an emphasis on keeping the vine canopy and earth in a natural state of balance, with minimal interference. This means minimum and timely application of natural fertilizers and water. Through water management and deep row cultivation we encourage deep root growth which aids in high grape quality in times of low rainfall.

Trellis
Much of our vineyard uses a vertical shoot position method whereby shoots are trained vertically and held in that position by sets of movable wires.

However, on our old Cabernet Sauvignon vines we use 2-wire narrow Vertical Shoot Position and a number of our Shiraz plantings use a Gibson-Schulz trellis system split 2-wire vertical. The Gibson-Schulz system is used to maintain the quality and style of fruit grown and aids in producing premium quality fruit, while increasing yield and reducing labour. The system is quite appropriate for premium red wine districts where soils have moderate to high growth capacity.