Viticultural Balance

The Tiers Vineyard was planted in 1979 with OF and Mendoza Chardonnay clones on own roots on the radical vine spacing of 2.1 metres between rows and 1.5 metres between vines (3175 vines/hectare), then the closest spaced vineyard on the Australian mainland. The vines are hand pruned to two canes of 12 buds each and two replacement spurs of 2 buds. Foliage wires hold the canopy vertically, all very revolutionary practice in 1979.

Traditional South Australian viticulturists considered the Piccadilly Valley too cool and inclement for grape growing and The Tiers Vineyard configuration too expensive to establish and too costly to manage for an economic return.

Their scepticism was nearly justified when the first flowerings of the new Tiers Vineyard failed in 1983 and 1984 because of what later proved to be unusually windy and cold weather in late November of both years.

The key to unlocking the quality potential of the Tiers Vineyard is the 90,000 buds/hectare that are necessary to achieve a proper vine balance and control of vigour in the benign Piccadilly Valley environment. The close spacing allows those buds to be dispersed along the fruiting wire to create an open canopy and to establish enough leaf area to fully ripen the 2 kilograms of fruit/vine that represents a crop level of only 6.4 tonnes/hectare. The Tiers was the first of the now many cool climate vineyards later established to this formula in Australia in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

The Croser family commitment to the continued excellence of the Chardonnay fruit from The Tiers Vineyard has been demonstrated by the emotionally painful removal of one third of the original panting and its replacement in 2003 to new Dijon Chardonnay clones on rootstocks and on an even tighter planting regime of 4444 vines/hectare. These vines now contribute another layer of complexity to Tapanappa Tiers Chardonnay.