Terroir
Why here?
Great wine is grown in the vineyard, and it all starts with terroir.
We believe our vineyard at Rylstone possesses a combination of soil, climate and location unlike almost anywhere else in Australia — and remarkably comparable in several important respects with the great cool-climate vineyards of Burgundy (our family's homeland) and Champagne.
That does not mean Rylstone is Burgundy.
It plainly is not.
But vines respond to physical conditions: soil chemistry, geology, water availability, temperature, altitude, sunlight, aspect and season.
Our fascination has always been with where those conditions converge — and what happens when they do.
THE SEARCH FOR A SITE
Much is written about the qualitative aspects of terroir — the culture, accumulated knowledge and techniques developed at a specific vineyard over generations.
This makes enormous sense when speaking with French vignerons who may have inherited hundreds of years of growing notes and observations, covering climatic cycles that no individual could experience in a lifetime.
We did not have that luxury.
When our family began searching for a vineyard site in the 1990s, we therefore started with the quantitative characteristics that could actually be measured:
Soil. Climate. Location.
Importantly, they cannot really be separated.
If climate alone determined great wine, there would be countless Côte d'Ors. If limestone alone were sufficient, every limestone outcrop would carry famous vineyards.
Yet Burgundy's most celebrated vineyards remain concentrated along an extraordinarily narrow band of land.
That fascinated us.
Burgundy lies well inland from the moderating influence of France's surrounding seas. Its climate is strongly continental, with cold winters, cool nights, warm summer days and considerable seasonal and daily temperature variation.
Its great vineyards are also overwhelmingly associated with the complex limestone, marl and clay geology of the Côte, often with remarkably shallow soils on its slopes.
And critically for us, those limestone-influenced soils tend towards the neutral and mildly alkaline end of the pH scale.
Those became the key parameters behind our search:
a very cool inland climate + shallow, well-drained soils + limestone influence + neutral to mildly alkaline pH.
TERROIR IN TWO DIMENSIONS
Terroir is immensely complicated.
Sometimes the simplest way to begin understanding it is to reduce it to two measurable variables.
Our Terroir Chart does exactly that.
The vertical axis measures growing-season temperature.
The horizontal axis measures average soil pH — from acidic soils on the left towards increasingly neutral and alkaline soils on the right.
pH is not a soil type. But it is an extremely useful measure of the chemical environment created by the interaction of geology, soil and biology.
On the chart, many Australian regions associated with acidic volcanic or granitic soils sit towards the left. The limestone-, marl- and chalk-influenced regions of France tend towards the right.
Temperature tells another part of the story.
And when the two are plotted together, something striking occurs.
De Beaurepaire sits in the cool, neutral-to-alkaline corner of the chart alongside Champagne and Burgundy.
The chart does not prove that the terroirs are identical. Far from it.
What it does is illustrate, remarkably simply, why we became so interested in this place.
The points reflect regional averages derived from published sources. Individual vineyard sites may vary from the regional average on either axis.
We searched through many of the established wine regions of south-eastern Australia and struggled to find this combination.
Eventually, west of the small village of Rylstone, we found a shallow valley at altitude on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range. Through it ran a narrow band of markedly different, calcareous-influenced soils.
That became our vineyard.
Rylstone lies around 40 kilometres south-east of Mudgee, within the Central Ranges Geographical Indication. Although geographically close to Mudgee — and often associated with it for tourism — we identify our wines as Central Ranges, not Mudgee.
The distinction matters to us.
Our altitude, climate, geology and resulting growing conditions are profoundly different from the warmer vineyard country usually associated with Mudgee.
Central Ranges is the formal geographical designation.
The identity we are really trying to understand is more specific still:
Rylstone.
AN ANCIENT GEOLOGY
The geological story of this landscape began hundreds of millions of years before anyone contemplated planting a vine here.
The oldest rocks associated with the geological system around Rylstone date to the Late Ordovician, around 450 million years ago, when eastern Australia formed part of the margin of Gondwana.
Marine sediments, volcanogenic material and carbonate-rich deposits accumulated through an extraordinarily complex history of ancient seas, volcanic activity, faulting, uplift and erosion.
The nearby Kandos district later became synonymous with limestone and cement manufacture, its carbonate resources feeding one of Australia's major twentieth-century cement industries and helping build the infrastructure of modern Sydney.
For us, however, the most interesting thing is not simply that limestone occurs here.
It is where it occurs.
The geological system changes over remarkably short distances.
Harder volcanic country forms much of the elevated landscape around us, while different sedimentary and calcareous formations emerge through valleys and lower slopes.
Our vineyard sits along one of those transitions.
TWO ANCIENT LANDSCAPES
France reached a superficially similar destination through an entirely different geological journey.
During the Jurassic period, much of what is now northern and eastern France lay beneath warm, shallow seas.
Over enormous periods, marine sediments accumulated and eventually formed the limestone, marl and chalk formations now associated with some of France's greatest vineyards.
Champagne's chalk is perhaps the most obvious example.
Burgundy is more geologically complex. Successive layers of Jurassic limestone, marl and clay were later exposed through faulting, uplift and erosion to form the Côte that today carries many of the world's most celebrated Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vineyards.
Kimmeridgian geology is particularly famous in Chablis, although Burgundy itself contains numerous different Jurassic formations.
The point is not that Burgundy and Rylstone share identical geology.
They plainly do not.
They are separated by continents and hundreds of millions of years.
What fascinates us is that two profoundly different geological histories can ultimately present a vine with some remarkably similar physical conditions:
calcareous influence, relatively high soil pH, good drainage and relatively shallow soil over underlying geology.
It is convergence, rather than replication.
THE LINE IN THE LANDSCAPE
The geological differences across our own property are surprisingly easy to see.
Much of the surrounding higher country is associated with the Rylstone Volcanics and related volcanic material. The harder rocks tend to form many of the area's high points.
The boundaries between geological systems can be remarkably abrupt.
Our vineyard closely follows the narrow, roughly north–south soil system running through the property.
And then it stops.
Drive down our vineyard road and the distinction can be seen on either side.
To the east, towards Rylstone and Kandos, soils associated with the harder volcanic country remain largely pasture.
To the west, sloping down towards the Cudgegong River, the lighter calcareous-influenced soils carry vines.
When the soil changed, we stopped planting.
We knew less about the site then than we do today.
In hindsight, it was probably one of the most important viticultural decisions we made.
SOIL CHEMISTRY, pH & LIFE
The physical structure of soil is only half the story.
The other is chemical and biological.
And one of the most useful measurements of that environment is pH.
pH measures acidity and alkalinity on a logarithmic scale. A movement of one pH unit therefore represents a tenfold change in hydrogen-ion activity.
Seemingly small differences can describe profoundly different chemical environments.
This matters because soil is not simply crushed rock holding up a vine.
Soil is an ecosystem.
Bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, insects, earthworms and plant roots interact constantly: decomposing organic material, cycling nutrients, altering soil structure, competing with pathogens and making minerals available to plants.
And that biological activity is strongly influenced by pH.
One useful analogy is the human body.
Human blood is maintained within an extraordinarily narrow pH range of approximately 7.35–7.45. The stomach deliberately operates at a radically different pH because a completely different chemistry, microbial population and biological function is required there.
Soil and people obviously do not require the same pH.
The point is simpler:
pH establishes the chemical environment in which biology operates.
The same applies beneath vines.
As soil becomes increasingly acidic or alkaline, mineral availability changes. Some nutrients become more soluble; others become increasingly bound and difficult for the vine to access.
Microbial communities change too.
The Australian Wine Research Institute notes that soil pH influences nutrient availability and the activities of both beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms, with vineyard performance generally favoured within a broad moderately acidic to neutral range.
Our vineyard soils generally sit around pH 7–7.5.
They therefore occupy a very different chemical environment from many of Australia's more acidic vineyard soils.
This does not mean that alkaline is inherently good and acidic inherently bad.
Great vineyards exist across an enormous range of geology.
Rather, it means the chemistry, biology and nutrient dynamics are different.
And when soil chemistry is considered alongside temperature, the relationship shown in our Terroir Chart becomes especially interesting.
SOIL, SLOPE & WATER DISCIPLINE
For centuries, Burgundian growers observed that vines only metres apart could produce perceptibly different wines.
That accumulated knowledge eventually became Burgundy's extraordinary mosaic of Climats — precisely delimited vineyard parcels distinguished by geology, hydrology, exposure, soil and generations of human observation.
UNESCO recognises 1,247 Climats across the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune.
Soils themselves differ in two broad ways.
Physically: depth, particle size, structure, layering, drainage, aeration and water-holding capacity.
Chemically and biologically: pH, macro- and micronutrient availability, chelation, organic matter and microbial life.
The two are deeply interconnected.
Across our vineyard, soils are generally only 20–60 centimetres deep, with most sitting around 40–50 centimetres.
In A Block, where much of our Chardonnay and Pinot Noir is planted, they are shallower again:
typically 20–40 centimetres.
The importance of this is fundamentally about what we call water discipline.
A shallow, well-aerated and freely draining soil provides a finite reservoir of readily available water.
Rain falls.
Some is stored.
Some drains.
Some is used.
And the vine must continually respond to what remains.
In a deeper soil, increasing depth can substantially increase water-storage capacity. In a shallow profile, the connection between rainfall, drainage and vine behaviour is much tighter.
Much of the active nutrient cycling and soil biology also occurs within the oxygenated upper soil profile.
Roots can continue deeper where fissures, fractures and geology allow, particularly in search of water, but greater depth increasingly becomes important as a water reservoir and regulator, rather than simply representing more nutrient-rich topsoil.
More soil is therefore not necessarily better soil for fine wine.
The relationship between water, aeration, vigour, season and vine response may be far more important.
SHALLOW SOILS IN CONTEXT
Soil depth alone cannot create a great vineyard.
Pétrus proves that wonderfully: its Merlot succeeds through a very different relationship with water, based on extraordinary clay.
But it is nevertheless striking how frequently great Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vineyards encounter limestone or chalk after relatively little topsoil.
The point is not that A Block is La Tâche or Romanée-Conti.
It isn’t.
The point is that a Chardonnay or Pinot Noir vine in our shallowest blocks encounters some strikingly familiar physical constraints:
limited soil depth, calcareous influence, aeration, drainage and disciplined water availability.
That makes the comparison worth studying.
LEARNING THE VINEYARD
Burgundy has had centuries to understand the relationship between tiny differences in soil, slope, exposure and vine.
We have not.
We are perhaps 500 years behind Burgundy.
Fortunately, we now have tools they did not.
Soil analysis, plant-tissue testing, microbiology, detailed weather monitoring, electromagnetic mapping, drones and precision viticulture allow us to accelerate the process of understanding our vineyard.
With the help of science, we are hopeful we might get a handle on it within the next 50 years.
Experience has already changed where we grow things.
Where colluvium and slope wash have accumulated, the resulting deeper soils behave differently from the shallower slopes.
Our Cabernet enjoys some of the deepest soils in the vineyard.
Our Chardonnay and Pinot Noir occupy some of the shallowest.
As our understanding grows, we expect the relationship between block, soil, variety, clone, rootstock and farming to become progressively more precise.
That is terroir too.
Not merely inheriting a place.
Learning how to listen to it.
CLIMATE — THE FINAL PIECE
Climate is the final piece of the terroir puzzle.
It is an important piece, but we believe it is less determinative than soil and geology. There are many valleys in Burgundy that share broadly similar temperatures and inland locations, but only one Côte d’Or.
Climate drives many of the processes governing vine growth and grape ripening. At vineyard level, its principal influences include sunshine, aspect, heat summation, rainfall, humidity, wind and diurnal patterns — the daily variation between maximum and minimum temperature.
And every vineyard has its own microclimate.
Even within our property and vineyard we see considerable variation. We have watched storms cross one part of the vineyard, soaking it while leaving another block almost dry. Cold air pools in some areas and drains freely from others. Some blocks are considerably more exposed to wind, while others are naturally protected.
These differences may occur over surprisingly short distances.
That is why broad regional climate statistics can only take us so far. Ultimately, terroir is experienced by an individual vine in a particular place.
CONTINENTALITY
At the broadest scale, one of the distinctions that interested us from the beginning was continental versus maritime influence.
Oceans moderate temperature.
Move inland and that moderation diminishes.
Greater seasonal and daily temperature variation follows.
Rylstone sits on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, around 160 kilometres inland from the coast.
Our vineyard lies approximately 600–650 metres above sea level. Yet on clear, still nights, strong radiative cooling and cold-air pooling can make the vineyard behave thermally more like a site at around 1,300 metres elevation. In other words, our physical altitude substantially understates how cold the vineyard can become under the right conditions.
Our prevailing weather also frequently arrives from the west — from farther inland rather than from the moisture-laden coast. These dry inland air masses help keep humidity relatively low, reducing some of the disease pressure that can accompany cool-climate viticulture.
That combination of altitude, inland position and exposure creates a remarkably cool environment by mainland Australian standards.
Daily temperature movements of 25–30°C are possible.
The lowest temperature we have recorded is approximately –14°C.
Once the sun disappears, our light soils retain comparatively little heat and the vineyard can cool extraordinarily quickly.
A WORKING HYPOTHESIS: DIURNAL STRESS
This is an area where our view has developed through observation rather than settled academic consensus.
Our working hypothesis is that large diurnal temperature variation is itself a significant physiological stress on the vine.
On clear days at Rylstone, a vine can move through an extraordinary temperature range — from an extremely cold night to a warm or hot afternoon only hours later.
Any living organism responds to rapidly changing environmental conditions.
We believe vines do too.
Grape skins are the fruit’s principal physical protection of the seeds within.
They are also where much of a red grape’s colour, tannin, phenolic material and many flavour and aromatic precursors are concentrated.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are naturally relatively thin-skinned varieties.
Our hypothesis is that repeated diurnal stress encourages the berry to invest more heavily in protective skin structure, contributing to greater intensity, texture and structure than the same naturally thin-skinned variety might produce in a more thermally moderated environment.
This may help explain why Pinot Noir and Chardonnay found such extraordinary historical success in continental Burgundy and Champagne, while thicker-skinned Cabernet Sauvignon became dominant in more maritime Bordeaux.
It remains a hypothesis.
Formal research may ultimately show that the mechanism is more complicated, or that part of our explanation is wrong.
If better evidence disproves it, we will change our view.
For now, it remains the explanation that best fits what we observe in our vineyard and in the resulting wines.
Cool nights also slow respiration and help retain acidity and aromatic freshness, while warmer daylight hours continue ripening.
What interests us is not simply cold.
Nor simply heat.
It is the movement between the two.
OUR MESOCLIMATE
Weather presents another peculiarity.
For more than a decade we have watched western storm fronts approach the vineyard on radar.
An extraordinarily consistent pattern occurs around the Windamere area.
By our observation, more than 80% of significant storm systems approaching from the west appear to divide in approximately the same area, leaving a recurring gap through our valley.
Our vineyard lies on rising ground towards Mt Coomber Melon, with two major valley systems falling away on either side. Weather frequently tracks north towards the Bylong Valley or south towards the Capertee Valley, while our own valley receives substantially less than the incoming radar pattern might initially suggest.
We suspect that the interaction of local geology and topography in or west of the Windamere area contributes to this repeated effect. We do not yet understand the precise mechanism.
But after watching the same phenomenon repeat over more than a decade, we are confident in the observation.
This is one of those aspects of terroir that the person farming a place can see long before anybody formally studies it.
RYLSTONE IN CONTEXT
At around 600–650 metres elevation, our vineyard is an unusually cold vineyard environment for mainland Australia.
Altitude is one part of the answer.
So is being inland.
And so is soil.
Our lighter sandy-loam soils lose accumulated heat quickly once the sun sets.
The result is an unusually long and slow ripening period, with harvest often extending later than many mainland Australian wine regions.
That slower ripening allows flavour development while preserving acidity.
We seek physiological maturity without heaviness.
And when growing-season temperatures are compared rather than latitude alone, Rylstone becomes particularly interesting.
Regional growing-season comparison
The purpose of these comparisons is not to argue that Rylstone is Burgundy or Champagne.
Terroir cannot be reduced to a temperature.
Nor can it be reduced to pH.
What is unusual is the combination:
very cool growing conditions + large diurnal movement + shallow soils + calcareous influence + neutral-to-mildly alkaline pH + disciplined water availability.
That combination is uncommon in Australia.
WHAT WE PLANTED — AND WHAT WE LEARNT
Our vineyard contains varieties associated with Burgundy and Champagne, Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley.
That was partly terroir.
It was also economics.
When the vineyard was established, we needed to sell a considerable proportion of our fruit to other wineries while building De Beaurepaire’s own wine business.
Australian demand in the 1990s heavily favoured Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Semillon and Shiraz.
So we planted both what we believed the site could grow and what the market was prepared to buy.
The result has taught us something valuable.
Rules are useful.
Nature is less interested in obeying them.
Our Cabernet can be beautifully perfumed and textural.
Our Shiraz can be fine, long and elegant.
Our Semillon has produced wines we would never have anticipated when the vineyard was planted.
Continental and maritime climate classifications are therefore valuable guides.
They are not a rule book.
Our job is to observe what each part of the vineyard tells us — vintage after vintage — and adapt.
WHAT IT MEANS IN THE GLASS
When we put these elements together — soil structure, soil chemistry, pH, biology, water discipline, altitude, inland continentality, temperature and diurnal range — we believe our vineyard represents one of Australia’s closest physical parallels with the cool limestone vineyards of Burgundy and Champagne.
We use the word parallel deliberately.
We are not trying to reproduce France.
A great wine should not impersonate somewhere else.
Burgundy’s greatness is that it tastes of Burgundy.
Our ambition is that De Beaurepaire tastes unmistakably of this valley.
Whether, in another few centuries, somebody might regard our best blocks as the equivalent of a Grand Cru or a Premier Cru site is something only time will tell.
In the meantime, the vineyard continues to surprise us.
Some of those surprises have come from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Others from Semillon, Cabernet, Merlot, Shiraz and Viognier.
Each season gives us another data point.
Each vintage tests another assumption.
And each generation should understand this place a little better than the one before it.
That, ultimately, is terroir.
Sources
The analysis on this page combines published geological, climatic and viticultural sources with observations and records accumulated at our vineyard since it was established.
The Terroir Chart uses published regional averages. Individual vineyards and soil horizons may vary, and soil-pH results can differ according to measurement method.
Useful source material includes:
- NSW Geological Survey / MinView
- Bureau of Meteorology
- Wine Australia — Central Ranges Geographical Indication
- Australian Wine Research Institute — vineyard soil pH and nutrient availability
- UNESCO — The Climats, terroirs of Burgundy
- Bourgogne Wine Board — vineyard geology and appellation material
- Comité Champagne — Champagne geology and chalk soils
- Published vineyard material from individual French estates and growers
- De Beaurepaire vineyard weather, soil and growing records
As our own data improves, so will this page.
It is intended to evolve with our understanding of the vineyard.