Our wines are 100% estate-grown here in Murrumbateman and 80% of the effort in making award-winning wines starts in the vineyard.
The recent winter rain was very welcome here at Shaw Wines. It is important to keep soil moisture up to the vines even while they are dormant. This will help with grape yields for the season ahead.
From September we will start to see budburst occurring in the vineyard which is the start of our growing season. We will also commence spraying as part of our vineyard maintenance, using natural based products such as sulphur and copper, to protect the new leaves and the developing grape bunches and prevent any diseases occurring.
In the past, we used to use herbicides for weed control however since 2017 we are now letting the native grasses gradually take over the weeds. We also use our sheep to graze the grasses, although we do mow between the rows. This year we are seeing an abundance of clover growing particularly where the old Merlot vines were removed from the middle of the vineyard.
We have also added some beehives to the vineyard to take advantage of the flowers from the clover and the vines.