Sons & Brothers Vineyard is located at an altitude of 920 metres on the cool, continental Orange Plateau, at Millthorpe about 18km south east of Orange. The soil is a deep, dark red, volcanic, basalt-derived kraznozem. The climatic conditions are similar to those of Eastern France. The first attempt at growing wine grapes in the Orange Region was made by Jack Pryde at Molong in 1952, the second was by Ted Fardell at Nashdale in 1980, and the third was by Chris Bourke at Millthorpe (Sons & Brothers) in 1981. We started with a mixture of many red and white varieties but eventually focused on just three: Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, and Savagnin.

The vineyard is predominantly planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, of which we have three clones: G9V3, ‘Reynella’ and ‘Dorrien’. Cabernet first appeared in the south west of France in the late 1600s as a chance cross between Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc. G9V3 is a widely grown virus free Californian selection, we supress both its natural vigour and its yield by pruning it very heavily. ‘Reynella’ is a lower yielding, less vigorous, small berried, high quality clone from McLaren Vale and Coonawarra. It was imported by William Macarthur in 1838 from Nathaniel Barton of Bordeaux. The Barton family owned part of the Chateau Leoville Vineyard in the Medoc and that is the probable source of this Cabernet. Macarthur established it at Camden Park NSW as his first and only Cabernet clone and sold cuttings from it to John Reynell in 1845. ‘Dorrien’ Cabernet is a high quality clone from the Barossa Valley it was collected in 1941 from Cabernet vines on an old Dorrien vineyard planted in the late 1800s. This and other early Barossa Cabernet vineyards were established from cuttings taken from Joseph Gilbert's Pewsey Vale Cabernet vines which were themselves purchased from William Macarthur in 1847. The ‘Dorrien’ clone was planted at Molong NSW in 1952 and cuttings from these Molong vines were taken to Mudgee in 1961 to establish Cabernet for the first time in that district. The ‘Dorrien’ and ‘Reynella’ clones are the oldest surviving Cabernet clones in Australia since both are descendants of the same Bordeaux cuttings imported in 1838.

Our Shiraz is PT23, a widely grown NSW selection that shares similar characteristics to most Australian Shiraz clones, presumably because all were sourced from the same hillside sites at Hermitage in France. Shiraz arose in the south east of France around the 1300s as a chance cross between Dureza and Mondeuse Blanche. The first successful importation of Shiraz into Australia was made by James Busby in 1832, he personally collected his cuttings at Hermitage. These vines were subsequently propagated by William Macarthur and sold as cuttings to growers throughout Australia. PT23 was selected from vines growing on Tulloch's vineyard in the Hunter River Valley which were themselves descendants of the original 1832 Busby importation.

We grow a small amount of Savagnin, an old French variety that can perform a similar role in cool climate red blends to that of its cousin Viognier. Savagnin was first cultivated in France around 400 AD. It originated from local wild vines. It can still be found in the Jura region of Eastern France. Savagnin produces small berries with very thick skins and lots of extract and tannins. Savagnin is the originating member of the Traminer vine family. Although essentially a white variety it can develop varying amounts of skin colour, including yellows, oranges, pinks, and reds, depending upon the soil pH and the vine growth temperature. The Savagnin clone grown at Sons & Brothers under cool conditions in acidic soils develops strong red pigments. Late harvested Savagnin is famous for its ability to make long lived wines of great complexity. Our Savagnin vines are descendants of cuttings collected at the Montpellier Gardens in France in the winter of 1831 by James Busby. These vines were labelled ‘Sauvignon du Jura’ by Busby but were later re-labelled in Australia using the correct spelling Savagnin (of the Jura). This variety had died out in the Sydney Busby Collection by 1842 and hence was not widely distributed however it survived in an experimental planting of Busby vines made by George Wyndham at ‘Dalwood’ in the Hunter River Valley in about 1834. From ‘Dalwood’, cuttings went to the ‘Bukkulla vineyard’ at Inverell in 1849, and to the ‘Mount Pleasant’ vineyard at Pokolbin in 1880. More cuttings left ‘Dalwood’ around 1916 to establish a planting at ‘Minchinbury’ near Sydney. Our Savagnin vines are direct descendants of the Maurice O'Shea ‘Mount Pleasant’ vines. The ‘Mount Pleasant’ vines themselves were pulled out at 106 years of age in 1986. A second very old Savagnin clone arrived in Australia from north-eastern Spain in 1989. It is one of several old French varieties that the Spanish have traditionally referred to as ‘Albarino’.

Our use of chemicals in the vineyard is restricted to copper and sulphur sprays for mildew prevention, magnesium, calcium, and phosphate for bunch stem necrosis prevention, and a narrow band of herbicide applied at the base of each vine in Spring and late Summer for weed control. In order to minimise yields and maximise ripening we train each vine to a single head (rather than two arms), spur prune it back to about 18 buds and then allow it to grow up a high narrow vertical trellis. Our vine density is about 600 per acre, we maintain a permanent grass sod along the inter-row, do not use any irrigation and get by on an average annual rainfall of about 830mm. Our fruit is hand picked and yields are usually between 1.5 to 2 tons per acre. We harvest out fruit as late as possible, typically between the 25th April and the 12th May. Our vines frequently experience late Spring and early Autumn frosts as well as Winter snow falls.