Tracey Young – Silver Spoon Estate
Tracie Young, long-time friend of Beverley, started in the wine indus-try in 2008 after purchasing a 350 acre property just north of Heath-cote- called ‘Silver Spoon Estate’ after a geological fault line and old mine of the same name on the property. Tracie explained this was part of her and partner Peter’s re-tirement plan. Not quite actually, as they are now working 15 hrs per day 7 days per week.
Tracie was in the retirement planning industry and came up with the idea of a vineyard. She and Peter planted vines in 1999 and now have the larg-est dry grown vineyard in Heathcote.
With no irrigation the vines make very deep roots, which is good for drought resistance but reduces yield to only 1 to 1.5 tonnes per acre. If irrigated the vines would yield more like 10 tonne per acre. White pebbles under vines reduce weeds and reflect heat.
There is no power to the property so Tracie and Peter created their own totally off-grid power system with 40 solar panels and batteries and gener-ator.
The vineyard and winery produce viognier, morvedre, tempranillo, grena-che and five different types of shiraz. Peter, who graduated as a geologist, added to his winemaking expertise through a Masters of Oenology and Viticulture. Oh, and If you still are unsure whether a cork seal or screw cap are best for bottled wine, Peter has researched the subject and the screw cap won.
Because the vines are not irrigated it is important that the grapes are picked immediately they have the right sugar level. The wines are matured in new oak and also breathable plastic storage tanks. Tracie says too much new oak can make wine too tannic. They use oak staves in the 600 L ‘flex tanks’ to control oak character. Most of their wines are sold to Chinese buyers who enter into pre-purchase agreements before the wine is bottled.
A pdf copy of the bulletin is here. RC of Ivanhoe 4 Nov 2020
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