Spirit of the soil

Wine lovers usually want to know about the vintage and where the grapes were grown before they buy a bottle – or a dozen. Troy Kalleske, from SA’s Barossa Valley, believes making wines with a natural, minimalist approach is the way to capture the truest essence of the vineyard in every bottle.

The Kalleske family has been farming and growing grapes at Moppa, near Greenock, in the north-western Barossa Valley since 1853.

The sixth generation of the family is now working with the earth to yield the best quality crops and livestock they can while caring for the environment.

There have been vines on their 200 hectare property since their forefathers bought it. However the Kalleskes, who are members at Greenock Lutheran Church and part of the Lutheran Winemakers collective, have only been making their own wine since 2002, with the first release in 2004.

‘Growing NATURALLY, the wines seem to be more HARMONIOUS and BALANCED. It’s a better expression of time and place – the place where it’s grown and the season.’

In that time the small-to-medium winery business has built a big reputation, winning a string of gold medals and awards at national and international wine shows, including the trophy for Australia’s best red wine at the 2012 London International Wine Challenge. They also took out the gold award at last year’s national Banksia Sustainability Awards, as well as the Small Business gong at the 2015 Telstra South Australian Business Awards.

Their point of difference from many others in this world-renowned wine region, is that their grapes are grown organically and biodynamically and the winery is also certified biodynamic/organic.

The farm also produces oats for the biodynamic market, as well as running beef cattle and sheep, with the same principles by Kym Kalleske, his father John and his mother Lorraine.

John and Lorraine’s winemaker son Troy explains that organic viticulture and farming does not use chemical sprays to control weeds or pests, nor synthetic fertilisers for growth. Weeds are controlled mechanically and growth is promoted by composts and natural fertilisers. Biodynamic practices build further on organic principles, making the health of the soil paramount. Special plant, mineral and animal preparations are added to the soil and the phases of the sun, moon, stars and planets are taken into account.

These philosophies flow right through the wine production – the Kalleskes use the native yeast on the grape for fermentation and use minimal additives, with sulphur at a maximum of half the rate in conventionally produced wine.

The Kalleske property is also self-sufficient in terms of electricity, with solar panels generating power for the whole farm. They use rainwater for the winery, which is captured on site, and they turn to evaporative cooling in the wine production process rather than the refrigerated chilling systems that many other wineries use.

The Kalleskes began organic practices on the whole farm in the mid-1980s. It has been certified organic since the late 1990s and then went biodynamic in the early 2000s.

‘We have always done the vineyard organically, but we did use chemicals on the farm’, John explains. ‘I got to the point where I just didn’t like farming that way. I just didn’t feel it was in harmony with nature and our Christian faith. When we are out there working in the vineyard especially, you feel in touch with God, in touch with nature and it’s a good feeling.’

Troy, who is also the treasurer for the Greenock congregation, adds: ‘You’re not exploiting the land as you’re harvesting it, so for the next generations it’s going to be here’.

John and Troy concede that organic farming generally is more labour-intensive than conventional practices, particularly while establishing vines for example. It also requires more specialised equipment and machinery, some of which they’ve built themselves.

However, Troy says, in the long run, organic farming and grape growing need not be more expensive and he believes the benefits are many and varied.

‘Firstly there are the environmental benefits of not having the chemicals on the soil and running off into the waterways, so you generally have a better environment for earthworms, fungi, bacteria, and then birds and animals and frogs’, he says.

‘And when it comes to the product side of things, I think organic and biodynamic does actually make better grapes and makes better wine, because it’s more naturally grown, in healthier soils.

‘You’ve got the natural biology there which is all having an impact on the flavour of those grapes. We also don’t add any tannins, enzymes or fining agents.

‘Growing naturally, the wines seem to be more harmonious and balanced.

It’s a better expression of time and place – the place where it’s grown and the season, whether it’s hot or dry, wet or cold vintage.’

Troy, who completed an Oenology (winemaking) degree at the University of Adelaide, and his brother Tony, the marketing and business manager for Kalleske, co-founded the winery. Troy had worked for other wineries and the Kalleskes had sold their grapes to other winemakers for many years before the siblings decided to start making and selling wine under their family name.

Both were still working full-time elsewhere for the first two years of what was a small operation, but in 2004 Troy went full-time for Kalleske and the winery has since expanded, with a cellar door opening in Greenock two years ago.

Having started with two wines – a Grenache and a Shiraz – they now make 15 wines from around a dozen varieties of grapes from their 50 hectares of vines and produce an average of 15,000 dozen bottles per year.

This feature story comes from The Lutheran May 2016. Visit the website to find out more about The Lutheran or to subscribe.