Viv Thompson of Best’s Great Western comes from a long line of winemakers
VIV Thompson comes from a long line of winemakers.
VIV Thomson comes from a long line of winemakers.
His father and grandfather grew grapes and made wine in the Grampians region, and his son Ben is carrying on the tradition.
Viv completed 51 consecutive vintages at Best’s Great Western after becoming the winemaker in 1962, in time for the start of the second great wine boom.
By the time he joined the operation the farm did have electricity, permanent water and an intermittent phone, but all the pruning, harvesting, bottling, labelling and corking was done by hand.
Bottled wine was packed in straw sleeves (envelopes) and packed into banana boxes for dispatch by rail.
Bulk wine was dispatched in barrels and loaded into rail trucks by hand at the Great Western railway station.
Fortified wines were sold in barrels to the pubs and shops in Ararat and Stawell.
“By the mid-’60s the wine growers were taking over from the wool barons and shiraz was king,” Viv said.
“The Grampians district was awakening from its slumbers with vineyards.”
Since then, the industry has been on a roller-coaster ride.
“I’ve seen three booms and three busts, and this bust is looking tough,” Viv said.
In 1890 there were 112 vignerons with 765ha vines in the region and last year there were 44 with 750ha vines. In 1960 there were only 16 wineries in Victoria.
Grapes were first planted at Great Western in the 1850s as gold mining deflated and people looked for a more permanent livelihoods.
The two vineyards established by the Best brothers are the only original properties in the region that are still around, and have remained in continuous production since the 1860s.
The Thomsons bought Best’s Great Western in 1920.
They now own six vineyard blocks — Rhymney Vineyard, Concongella, Thomson Family Block, Nursery Block, Barts and Marcus and The Hill Block.
The soils range from hard setting silt over clay to friable clay loams.
“In general, the soils and vineyards are low yielding and retain moisture very well, essential in a region with limited rainfall,” Viv said.
The altitude of the Grampians region results in lower than average temperatures than the Central Victorian wine regions — similar to a Mediterranean climate.
The proximity of the vineyards to the Southern Ocean helps cool them in summer.
The Grampians is recognised as a cooler climate region, the growing season in summer is characterised by warm to hot days, but with nights that are cool to cold.
The region is especially well suited to later ripening red varieties, particularly shiraz.
Best’s 2011 Bin 1 Shiraz won the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy at the 2012 Royal Melbourne Wine Show and a gold medal at the 2012 National Wine Show of Australia.
Best’s produces 17 wines, but some are not made every year.
The winery’s Concongella Nursery Block was planted in the 1860s by Henry Best.
By 1870 he had about 48,000 vines and made separate wines from each variety.
The reds grown include tinta amarella, aubun, grec rose, dolcetto and cisnut, and the whites include fer, furmint, palominto, chasselas and gouais.
Today the old vines are hand picked, first the whites and then the reds. Everything else is machine picked. No vineyard is irrigated.
Viv’s philosophy is that great wines are made in the vineyard.
“We avoid the overpowering use of oak or additional treatments. Instead, we prefer to let our fruit tell the story,” he said.
Best’s employs 17 people during non-vintage periods and about 21 during vintage.
Harvesting begins in mid to late February and can go until mid-April.
Winemaker Justin Purser has been with the winery since 2011.
After graduating from Adelaide University with a bachelor of science in oenology, Justin worked at Primo Estate Wines in South Australia for three years before moving overseas where he worked vintages at Peregrine Wines in Central Otago, New Zealand.
He has also worked in Italy and France.
Justin said yields were down but grape quality was up this year.
“Lower yields usually mean a greater concentration of flavour,” he said.
The Grampians region is well poised for the future, Viv said.
“We have a well-deserved reputation for shiraz, we produce riesling as good as any in the country, the region has trophies at national wine shows for every main stream variety except sauvignon blanc and pinot gris, both of which I consider weeds.
“We are yet to fully embrace the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese varieties, many of which may be successful in the Grampians region.”
Viv has great faith in the next generation of wine producers.
“The Grampians has one of the best climates in the world for growing quality grapes,” he said.
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