Smith family mull wine for members club

Jointly owned by Tracy and Paul Smith, Cradle of Hills Wines operates on 6.8 hectares at Sellicks Hill, which they took on in 2008.

Mrs Smith, formerly a horticulture lecturer, says Cradle of Hills sustainably grows "A-grade grapes, to make award-winning wines by hand, on-site, at (our) tiny, artisan winery".

"All of the picking and harvesting is done either by hand by us or with contractors machinery," she said.

"All the winemaking is done by us in the shed next to the house, bottling, wine maturation and ongoing winemaking is done by us."

Mrs Smith said they had to cut back on production during COVID, as markets had been impacted, but there had been "enormous community support".

"The local community, came out of the woodwork worried that we would close and everyone ordered wine," she said.

She said during that time, the retail market began to overtake the wholesale, which still had not recovered to date.

"All of our supply chains were compromised so now we have a members club, who buys most of our wine," she said.

"But fortunately, our membership grew because of people working from home."

Mrs Smith said they ran the winery in line with their values.

"We feed the vineyard where we are using an enormous pile of rotten manures and that allows us to run the vineyard sustainably," she said.

"We have recently formalised that with certification."

She said the quality of their wines were increased due to low input.

"We have got a very soft approach to feeding the vines," she said.

"It allows the vines to recover from harvest but not over produce, but harvest will start late in the coming vintage season.

"The whites will start coming off early February, red grapes start in late February.

"The colder it is in the season - like this year - we're looking at early March."

She said vintage for the red varietals might start the first week of March - about 10 to 14 days late.

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"We handpick for all of our wines but we send our grapes off site to other wineries now too," she said. "These days at least 80 per cent of our grapes go to other winemakers.

"For Cradle of Hills wine, we do it all by hand - hand sorting, hand plunging, basket pressing. It's all hands-on, physical work for six to eight weeks.

"We have got a five-star ranking with James Halliday and we have had that for many years."

She said ownership of the whole production was important.

"On the wine side, because we do all of the labour, all of the distribution and all of the sales, it is profitable because of the mark-up on wine," she said.

"Because of our reputation and the quality of the wine, we haven't compromised on the quality and we haven't compromised on the pricing.

"It was the other thing that made us sustainable - we have not increased our production and taken more from the vines, even in good years.

"We go through and take all the A-grade fruit and then some of the B-grade fruit and then sell rest of the fruit on the reputation of our wine."

Mrs Smith said their customers liked the authenticity and connection.

"What they love is the minimal input and meeting us, hearing the story," she said.

"And the fact that we don't push the product to do anything except its natural expression."

Mr Smith carries out the wine making with a minimal intervention approach.

Mrs Smith said the strategies their business incorporated included only making small batches at a time and hand sorting to a maximum 1.5 tonnes per vat.

"He conducts open vat fermentation with hand plunging of the cap about three to four times per day," she said.

"He has strict control over fermentation temperatures ensuring long slow ferments, and maximises skin contact time by up to three weeks.

"He uses a gentle hand-operated basket press, (ferments) in well-seasoned oak, regular lees stirring once in barrel, carries out minimal racking, has a no filtering or fining for the products used and has an extended barrel aging before bottling."

SA Wine Industry Association Incorporated chief executive officer Brian Smedley said direct to consumer sales were a key pillar in many sales strategies.

"The opportunities to really engage directly face to face with the consumers is a very powerful and very important option for businesses to get involved in," he said.

"Generally speaking, COVID has been the pivotal change in the abilities for people not only to have their direct to consumer sales, in terms of an e-commerce, but also the improvement in terms of the experiences that are available at the cellar door. It has dramatically improved over the last five years.

"It is important to be able to tell the story of where the grapes come from and how they are important as part of the product.

"That ability gives consumers confidence in what the product is, if you know where everything that's gone into the bottle has come from."

Barossa Farmers' Market manager Helen Hughes said farmers' markets helped showcase what produce was available in the area.

"We do not have a wine stall at our market due to the building being owned by a winemaker," she said.

"But we do have a gin stall, which is quite popular."

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