'The 'Yeringberg' Vineyard consisted of 60 acres on the slope of the hill to main Healesville Road, and 10 acres on the river flats where the tank stand is at present.
There were different sorts of grapes grown: Gouais, Pinot, White Hermitage (Marsanne), Chasselas, Tokay (Harsleveloo), Verdeilho, Reisling. All these made good Hocks & Chablis. The Gouais was a good bearer, but the wine was not quite so high class as the others, so we used it to fill up all the other white wines after fermentation.
There were a good few acres of Shiraz (Red Hermitage), a heavy bearer, and the vineyard on the flat was all Pinot Noir, which made Burgundy. It was also a heavy bearer.
The vines were all planted originally 5ft x 3 ft which meant a lot of forkhoeing by hand but labor in those days was very cheap. Later I pulled out every second vine which made it 5 x 6 and the plows & scarifiers could work both ways and save a lot of time and labor. Where I planted any new blocks I put them in at 6ft x 6ft.
The vines were all staked and tied to the stakes with rushes which we cut near the lagoons on the river flats.
I had no trellis, but it would have been as good or better for some sorts, such as Shiraz, but it would have prevented working the ground both ways with the horses.
We began vintage in March, about the middle of the month; it depended on the season and when the grapes were ripe enough. We tested some with the sacrometer and started when the must showed about 12° baumé; of course some years it would not show as much, but they had to be picked before they got mouldy if it had been a wet and cold year.
We put on about 20 or 25 pickers and got the grapes in as quickly as possible in fine weather. If the crop was heavy it meant working day & night in the press-room to have presses ready and clean for the next day. If we got blocked I would switch the pickers on to red grapes as they went straight into the fermenting vats after been destemmed and crushed this gave us more time to get the presses ready for white grapes.
In hot weather the fermentation wanted a lot of watching, as casks would boil over if they happened to have too much must put into them. We always left about 12 inches to 18 inches in each cask. After the big fermentation was over, in about 3 weeks, we would then take a vat of Gouais and fill up all the casks, put a little sand bag over the bung hole and leave them alone except to go round with the can and keep them full, every 2 weeks (all wines the same, casks must be kept full).
I used to start racking in June (not later then middle of July) pumping the wine out into clean casks, but letting the wine run into a big tub and sucking it out of the tub with the pump, never screwing the suction hose on to the tap in the cask, as it would suck all the lees at the bottom. When the cask was empty, get a long handle hoe and through the door, pull all the lees out and put it away in some empty hogsheads with the heads off. In big cellars this is distilled to make wine spirit, as is also the marc (the crushed and pressed grapes which come out of the presses). I used to put it all back into the vineyard as manure, it was mixed up into the stable manure.
The wines were racked again in January. Every cask in the cellar was racked twice a year into a clean one. I used to keep the wines about 2 years or 3 years before selling it.
The whole thing in wine making is to have everything clean, and no weeping casks in the cellars, as that brings in the vinegar flies. Before putting any white wine into a cask, sulphur must be burned in the cask. Not in red wines as sulphur spoils the color of reds. When a cask is emptied and it will remain empty, it is risen on the back chocks so it can drain out, & when it is dry it must have sulphur burned in it and the door & bungs put back tight. When it is wanted again, of course it must be rinsed out before putting wine into it. Never put white wine into a cask that has had red wine in it. Now a days at vintage they sprinkle S.O.U.S on the crushed grapes in the press or on the must as it runs out of the press into a tank. This will prevent fermentation until you add the levure (or yeast) you want into the cask after the bustle of vintage is over. With red grapes they are crushed & destemmed and put into fermenting vats and the red berries must be kept pressed down into the juice by a false head and some weight or levers so that all the tannin & color gets into the wine.
To make white Burgundy we used to shoot the bunches straight into a press without putting them through the crusher. When the press was full we pressed it down as quickly as possible and got all the first juices out; before they had time to color we stopped pressing and put all the pressed bunches back through the crusher and destemmer and into the big fermenting vat to make red wine. That is the way they make the Champagne if they use black Pinot (which is Burgundy). The Pinot blanc makes the best champagne. There is also a Pinot gris (grey) in the Champagne country. I had one or two vines of it.
When racking the wines in the cellar, I put all the bottoms (dirty wine) into hogsheads or ¼ casks and when it had settled and was clear, I used it for topping up the casks every month, and the red bottoms made the ration wine for the men, who had a bottle at noon each day and they could buy 3 bottles every Saturday evening. That used to keep them from going to the pub at Coldstream and getting drunk.!
The must when fermenting in the casks forms “argol” or wine stone on the sides & a head & back of the casks. Many people scrape this off when washing the cask, but I only scrubbed it clean and each year it got thicker, (in some of my casks it was nearly ½ an inch thick). This kept the wine from being in contact with the wood which I found kept the wine lighter in color. Of course where any of the argol was loose, I knocked it off with a hammer and washed & scrubbed the spots thoroughly. I bagged the wine stone & sold it to make cream of tartar. It used to bring as much as £100 a ton..
Any utensils used in the cellar must be made of wood or tin, nothing galvanized, as it spoils the wine. All bungs and taps must have a piece of rag put around them when in use, to prevent any leakage (not the top bung of a cask).'
