30 years ago I was young, full of confidence and relatively naïve. We were crushing about 500 tonne with most of it being red. We still used the same headed down open fermenters as we had when the winery was built in 1927, and still basket press everything as always. 

Dad left school in 1973 and worked the vineyard with horses until we bought the first rubber tyre tractor in McLaren Vale in 1947. Funnily enough, we have stopped tilling the soil 20 years ago, along with using herbicides and have gone back to sheep and horses in the vineyards with no tractors at all. We also foot tread all the ferments now.

We now have 64 different wines from 37 varieties but otherwise not much has changed. We do a bit of Adelaide Hills fruit (which was pretty much non-existent 30 years ago) however, most of what we do is McLaren Vale. 

We started with Negociants NZ in the mid 90’s and have had loads of fun ever since. The road trips have been legendary. Many a drop sold and consumed!

Chester Osborn