Ned's Vineyard

History

Hi, I’m Mick Hobson. Thanks for visiting the Ned’s Vineyard website.

This is a story about my passion for a piece of land and my education in growing good Shiraz grapes.

Where most travellers carry pictures of their loved ones, in 1992 when I was working on oilrigs in the Middle East, I carried with me a picture that I’d drawn after my first visit to the beautiful Landsborough Valley, of the perfect piece of land I would come to buy five years later, plant with vines and name Ned’s Vineyard.

In 1994 when I bought the land that the locals have always called Ned’s – after Ned Perry who owned the land generations back – I had absolutely no intention of planting its bare paddocks with vines. It was just going to be my private sanctuary.

But when I heard on the radio about a wine grape irrigation seminar – this area being part of the famous Pyrenees wine region – I was interested. So I went along, met the right people and with their know-how, my capital, and a lot of hard work, planted my first vines.

The result was well beyond my expectations and by 2004 we had made our first excellent shiraz.

Vineyard

Because the Pyrenees region is only an hour from the Grampians, its cool climate is perfect for growing Shiraz. There’s very little summer rainfall, making the flavour of the fruit consistent year after year as I can control their water intake, encouraging the concentration of their rich flavour.

I planted Ned’s Vineyard on four hectares (10 acres) of red clay, white quartz and sandy loam soil, which is perfect grape growing soil and extremely highly regarded in the grape-growing world. Because of the typically cool and even temperatures during the grape ripening period, the wines have structural complexity and elegant, spicy flavours.

The climate and soil are comparable to those of the best wine growing areas in Europe. To make sure the vines get as much sun as they can, Ned’s Vineyard is contour planted and the vines are vertically shoot positioned.

After they’ve taken their time to ripen on the vines, we carefully hand pick the grapes to make sure none of the juice is lost before they are processed.

We harvest at Ned’s Vineyard between mid March and mid May, depending on the weather. It is during the extended ripening period that Ned’s grapes develop their signature black pepper flavours.

In the future I plan to plant another four acres of Shiraz vines bringing the total to 14 acres.