Chalmers Wines at Merbein grows from strength to strength

THERE is a strong family blend of history and hard work behind the Chalmers Wines brand, writes SARAH HUDSON

Family affair: The Chalmers Wines family (from left) Bart van Olphen with daughter Ida, his wife Kim, sister-in-law Tennille and Kim and Tennille’s parents Jenni and Bruce Chalmers.

FOR about 15 years from the mid-1990s, the Chalmers were the go-to family for grapes and vines.

There was a time their property at Euston, near Mildura, was the largest privately­-owned vineyard in Australia, with 600ha under vine.

And the associated Chalmers Nursery also, for a time, was the largest wholesale grapevine nursery in Australia, renowned for its imported new varieties from around the world.

“Over the years Chalmers Nurseries propagated at least 30 million vines, averaging 2 million a year,” Kim Chalmers said.

“If you average that out across Australia, at a rough approximation that’s about 10-15 per cent of Australia’s vineyards. That gives you a shape of how busy the business was.”

But then it all came to an end when parents Bruce and Jenni Chalmers, and their daughters Kim and Tennille, received an offer too good to refuse and sold the business in 2008.

But, the retirement didn’t last for long, the family had dedicated too much of their lives to the Australian grapevine industry, the daughters said. So, in that same year, they bought 80ha at Heathcote and then later 35ha at Merbein, outside Mildura, and now have a total of 60ha under vine, yielding about 250 tonnes a year in Heathcote and 600 tonnes a year in Merbein.

And their pioneering expertise has not stopped.

 

ITALIAN STALLION

HAVING imported so many new varieties, the Chalmers have focused their two vineyards on growing southern Italian varietals such as vermentino, nero d’Avola, fiano and aglianico.

Last year a new shipment of previously unavailable Italian vine selections included falanghina, pecorino and ribolla gialla. The family produces 7000 cases of wine annually under the Chalmers Wines brand using 100 tonnes of their own fruit, which includes Montevecchio a line of everyday-drinking blends, as well as their handmade trial wines, Chalmers Project. About 750 tonnes annually is sold to wineries.

The large majority of their wines are sold around Victoria to bars and restaurants, with a small amount sold through retail, and this year Chalmers Wines are selling to the UK.

They have continued to sell vine varieties. The Merbein property houses the source blocks for the vine varieties and clones they import and then distribute around Australia. And from this year Chalmers are again going to propagate vines for sale from their imported selections.

Heathcote and Merbein are planted with 14 clones of 13 different white varieties, 11 of which are imported from the time they ran their Euston nursery; and 27 red varieties, 23 of which are imported, covering 81 clones.

 

CLIMATE REPORT

THE sisters, who continue to work with their parents, said the beauty of southern Italian varieties was not only because they were new to the Australian quaffing public, but also because they were better suited to our climate.

“These varieties have an ability to withstand heat and drought, with naturally-thick skins, which means they’re less susceptible to sunburn and disease,” Kim said.

She said it was difficult to put a number on water savings from these varieties, but “generally-speaking we save about 10-15 per cent of water use growing something like vermentino”.

In addition, water use is reduced through daily watering for short periods and at night with drip irrigation.

The varieties are a perfect fit for the Chalmers “sustainable” vineyard management.

While not certified, Kim said they were 95 per cent organic, using synthetic inputs when conditions called for it.

Fertilisers are a mix of composted cow manure and seaweed-based products. Copper and sulphur are used as fungicides; and they use pesticides only when required. Herbicides are their main synthetic input, using knockdown varieties that frazzle the leaves and are non-residual.

 

SOIL SAVVY

THE Heathcote Vineyard is an east-facing sloped site comprised of the famous red Cambrian soils. The lower vineyard is deep, red clay-loam while the higher vineyard is complex rocky terrain of ironstone, dolerite, green basalt and jasper.

Harvest in Merbein is late January to mid-March and in Heathcote runs from mid-February to early April.

The Chalmers first started making wine in 2003, when the family ran the Euston property, making 5000 cases per year and six different wines.

The sisters said because their parents were farmers and viticulturists, not wine makers, they outsourced winemaking to Kooyong Winery on the Mornington Peninsula, who are renowned for minimal intervention in the winemaking process.

These days their trial wines, Chalmers Project, are made by Tennille and Kim’s winemaker husband Bart van Olphen at their winery in Merbein, exploring grassroots winemaking with no tools, additions or filtration.

All other wines continue to be made by Kooyong Winery.

Kim said their Merbein winery could currently process 30 tonnes, but they plan to expand it in coming years to make all their wines at a capacity of 150 tonnes.

“We are proud of what our parents have achieved.

“Even though we’ve shared the vines and wine around Australia, we feel a lot of ownership over it.”