In the Heart of the Volcano

This feature originally appeared on Wineries of Victoria. Robyn Harper sat down with Boat O'Craigo's vineyard manager, Andrew Mills, to talk about the black volcanic soil at our Kangaroo Ground vineyard, and how it shapes our red wines.

Boat O'Craigo grows fruit from two distinct sites in the Yarra Valley: Healesville, with its cool, alluvial soils suited to white and Pinot varieties, and Kangaroo Ground, perched on an extinct volcano with a cap of black volcanic soil and dark brown clay over floating basalt subsoil. According to Mills, that black soil creates a warming effect that lets Boat O'Craigo ripen reds — Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Gamay and two trial Pinot clones — even in difficult, wet seasons, producing intense flavour, colour and balance. Boat O'Craigo is the only Yarra Valley vineyard with black volcanic soil, positioned at the highest point of the extinct volcano.

The soil's roughly 300mm black cap is nutrient-rich and mulch-like: plastic when wet, crumbly and firm when dry, protecting the subsoil, preventing erosion and root compaction, and optimising drainage. Its warming, mineral-rich properties impart ripeness and help maintain balance and acidity through the growing season.

Boat O'Craigo maintains the soil with a primarily organic program — mushroom compost and other composts to encourage biodiversity, and side-thrown mid-row cover crops for both sun reflection and added organic material. The site's quality is reflected in a run of award-winning wines scoring in the high nineties, including the 2015 First Duke Shiraz, 2015 Braveheart Cabernet Sauvignon and 2015 Black Cameron Shiraz, which together contributed to Boat O'Craigo's James Halliday 'Dark Horse Award'.

Read the original feature at Wineries of Victoria.