The Farm
Hentley Farm is a very special property spread over approximately 150 acres (with 100 acres planted and 20 acres of planned plantings). It has a great diversification of east and west facing slopes, and a 100m altitude variance from the top to the bottom blocks. This results in a great variety of terroir at Hentley Farm, giving our unique wines complex aroma and flavour profiles.
Vines
Our vineyards consist of Shiraz (70%), Grenache (17%), Cabernet Sauvignon (10%), Zinfandel (2%) and Viognier (0.5%).
Although there were some existing old vine plantings on the property, mostly planting new vineyards meant that a scientific approach could be taken. Blocks were carefully selected for their orientation and aspect, and four different clones of Shiraz were chosen. Only varieties that are well-adapted to the Barossa's drier conditions were planted. Whilst the vines are all less than 15 years of age, the quality of wine produced demonstrates the importance of regional terroir.
Trellis methods used are generally a vertical shoot position method, with a 2-wire narrow vertical shoot position on our old Cabernet Sauvignon vines and the Gibson-Schulz system split 2-wire vertical on a number of our Shiraz vines (used to maintain the quality and style of fruit grown, and aid in increasing yield and decreasing labour). This system is quite appropriate for premium red wine districts where soils have moderate to high growth capacity.
Soils
Our soils are red clay loams, generally overlaying shattered limestone (Terra Rossa) with lightly rocked slopes and little topsoil (varying from around 10-50cm depths). Subsoils are generally tightly structured massive to friable clay (having huge water holding potential and slow permeability) with varying depths of regarding saprolite (parent material) composed of mainly limestone. Topsoil and subsoil pH ranges from 5.5 - 6.5 (neutral - slightly alkaline).
