Grapes, wines and philosophy
Delatite is best known for its aromatic whites that have won many trophies and medals over the years, as well as receiving great reviews around the world. Robert and Vivienne Ritchie planted the first vines in 1968, built the winery in 1982, and their daughter Rosalind was the winemaker from 1982 until her retirement in 2005. In late 2007 Robert and Vivienne’s son David purchased the winery from his parents and continues the family tradition. He’s always understood that this site is special and all of Delatite’s wines truly are a product of the terroir of the vineyard.
The ripening period over the last 30 years has been characterized by warm days and cold nights – late varieties such as Riesling and Cabernet sauvignon were picked between mid April and late May. However, that seems to have all changed since 2002! The last few vintages have been both early and mixed-up with late varieties often ripening around the same time as Pinot noir. This is reflected in the increased flavour, colour, and depth in our red wines since 2004 but has meant shorter, more intense vintages. Our wines are sold from the cellar door, retail outlets and restaurants around Australia, and 10-15% is exported

Winemaking
Winemaker Andy Browning sjoined us in February 2009. He comes bringing considerable expertise in what he likes to refer to as natural winemaking, seeking to avoid the manipulation of the wines under his care, allowing the vineyard and vines to express their true flavours rather than showing the fingerprints of the winemaker. The fruit for Delatite is hand harvested and hand pruned and this gives the old vines (up to 44 years old) the best possible chance to express themselves.

Whites
The fruit is handled while cool and, depending on the variety, may be put through the must chiller, chilled and then held on skins for a few hours in the press. It is cold settled, and racked. Since 2009 natural yeasts from the vineyard (sometimes called ‘wild yeast’) are used in preference to cultured packaged yeast and ferments begun within two weeks of harvesting. Ferments normally run for around three weeks at between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius before finishing. All of the white wines then have an extended period sitting on gross lees before being cleaned up ready for bottling. Over recent years a small proportion of many of the aromatics have then spent time in oldre french puncheons to give added complexity and roundness to the finished blends.

Reds
The grapes are crushed as they arrive and the must will cold soak for up to ten days before being warmed up and allowed to ferment. As with the whites, since 2009 ferments are allowed to begin naturally without the addition of packaged yeast. The majority of fermentations occur in small open topped vessels with traditional Pigeage (pushing down the cap by hand), pumping over and rack and return processes but with the ability to cool the ferments down if they do get too hot. After ferment the wines are pressed off in our basket press and matured in small oak barriques and hogsheads for a period of 12-18 months depending upon the wine.

BioDynamics
We started following Rudolf Steiner’s teachings on agriculture back in 2001 and have now been using some of the methods for over eight years. What’s clearly evident is that our soil structure has improved markedly and there are far more earthworms and tiny invertebrates evident close to the surface under the vines. The immeasurable benefits include better fruit structure and flavours and therefore improved wine quality. We follow moon cycles when putting out BD preps and in 2009 started to use a BD calendar to work out best days for harvesting – where practical!.

In the beginning we used BD 500 (the cow horn preparation used on the soil) and manure concentrates concurrent with cutting out the use of insecticides and most fungicides.
2003:   stopped using compound fertilisers – replacing with rock phosphate, fish emulsions and kelp liquid/foliar fertilisers.
2005:   eliminated all fungicides except for copper and sulphur (used in agriculture for over 2000 years.
2006:   started making our own “teas” (for use on both the soil and the vines) and also making our own cow manure concentrates.
2008:   purchased a very effective, but costly Italian under-vine and mid-row slasher (our last use of herbicide occurred in the spring 2005). Additionally we extended our native revegetation areas (now around 4ha) to include Casuarina trees whose foliage will be used to make a brew of natural insecticide.
2009:   started up our own BD compost heaps using stockpiles of some of the ingredients we’ve built up over the last two years. Winemaking; no cultured yeasts added – all natural!

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