The Kayinga Vineyard on the banks of Lake Alexandrina was established under the GuildGrape Project No. 1 and Property Trust (GuildGrape) managed investment scheme.  The vineyard was planted in 1998 and FABAL assumed the operational management of the vineyard in 2001.

FABAL continues to manage the 300 hectare Kayinga Vineyard which is comprised of solely red varieties.  The vineyard has developed a strong reputation by providing grapes for the backbone of a number of key export brands.

GuildGrape Project

The GuildGrape Project No. 1 and Property Trust was established on 12^th March 1998 and subsequently converted to a managed investment scheme that year.

In 2001, FABAL was appointed to manage the vineyard operations at Langhorne Creek.  It continues to be the viticultural manager of the Kayinga Vineyard.

The growers in the GuildGrape project, at a general meeting on 5^th October 2009, voted in favour of the retirement of Guild Financial Services as the responsible entity of the project and the appointment of FABAL as the replacement responsible entity.  This transition took effect from 10^th November 2009.

Langhorne Creek

The Langhorne Creek region is situated 80km to the south east of Adelaide on the alluvial plains between the Mount Lofty Ranges and Lake Alexandrina.

Whilst this region has been producing winegrapes for more than 150 years, viticulture has until recently been confined to the flood plains of the Bremer and Angus Rivers which drain into Lake Alexandrina.  Since the early 1990’s there has been a dramatic expansion of vineyards in the region, increasing plantings from 500 ha in 1985 to more than 4,000 ha today.

This dramatic expansion has been fuelled by the growth in Australian wine exports and specifically by the water availability from Lake Alexandrina.

The region has a typically dry climate, with an average rainfall of less than 400 mm.  In this climate, additional water is essential for vineyards to prosper on soils off the alluvial floodplain.

FABAL recognises the long standing high quality reputation (although low profile) of Langhorne Creek for premium red wines. In previous years, many Barossa and McLaren Vale premium wines have included Langhorne Creek fruit in them without any need to include their contribution on the label.

The Kayinga Vineyard

The Kayinga Vineyard is located approximately 10 km south of the Langhorne Creek township on the northern shore of Lake Alexandrina and east of the Bremer River.  This vineyard of more than 295 hectares was developed on land

traditionally used for cereal and potato cropping.  The vineyard borders large scale vineyards developed by Mildara Blass Ltd (now Foster’s Wine Estates). The land is relatively flat with several slightly elevated areas with gentle slopes.

Because of the near perfect climatic conditions

– its proximity to a large body of water (Lake Alexandrina), its warm climate and extremely low frost risk – it was seen as ideal for growing high quality fruit.

The vineyard is planted solely to red varieties being Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz.  Initial requests by the grape buyer, Simeon Wines, to plant small areas of Italian varieties (Nebbiolo and Sangiovese) subsequently were less enthusiastically received and these varieties were replanted.

The average annual rainfall of the Langhorne Creek region is approximately 500 mm but more importantly falls predominantly in winter and spring with lower likelihood of summer disease pressure.

The vineyard has a range of soils from shallow to deep loamy sands to sandy loams overlying sandy clay loam to light to medium clays.  Most of the soils contain various forms of carbonates, primarily calcrete rubble and calcrete stone layer.  These allow good root development and generally provide good drainage.

Water Requirements

Grapevines require regular watering to supplement the natural annual rainfall. To produce the quality of wine grapes expected for this project, the Kayinga Vineyard requires approximately 3 megalitres of water per hectare, given the region’s average rainfall.

Water Supply

Water entitlements were purchased to provide the necessary irrigation water for the vineyard. 

The project, through the property trust, owns licences with an entitlement of more than 1,400 megalitres of water.  This is comprised of:

1. 620 megalitres of River Murray water licence entitlements; and
2. 308 megalitres of underground water licence – the salinity of this water is approximately 2,500 mg/L whereas the preferred salinity for irrigation of grapevines is less than 1,500 mg/L.  Kayinga also has a number of bores across the property from which it can access the underground water.

Irrigators drawing from the Murray-Darling basin have had their allocations restricted to various degrees since 2006 and face the prospect of restrictions continuing in future seasons. What is certain is that many irrigated growers, unless they lease additional water or incorporate other water management strategies, will have insufficient water available for their normal requirements with the resultant likelihood of impaired vine condition and reduced yield expectations.

In recent years Kayinga has increasing its irrigation water application to optimise the project’s yield (and associated vigour) while maintaining the quality specifications demanded of the wineries.  The vineyard has a permanent River Murray allocation equivalent to only 2.1ML/ha but we believe that the application of 2.5 to 2.8ML/ha is more efficient in the long term.

Aquifer Storage and Recovery – ASR

ASR is the pumping of water drawn from a variety of sources (Lake Alexandrina, River Murray or the desalination plant) back down the existing bores to be stored in an underground aquifer and then drawn out for irrigation at a later time.  ASR has been practiced for many years in the region and FABAL commenced ASR at Kayinga in the 2006-07 season.

The success of this process is largely dependent upon the local aquifer hydrology.

The concept involves placing the fresh water down into the aquifer where it forms a ‘bubble’ or lens of fresh water inside the saline aquifer.  The integrity of this bubble can be highly variable and will deteriorate with time and aquifer conditions.  In ideal conditions it is possible to place, for example 300 ML of fresh water into the aquifer and draw back or recover up to 80% back out at a salinity of less than 1,500ppm.  Recovery integrity results can vary by as much as 20 – 80%.

In Kayinga’s situation, we have been using ASR successfully for a number of years.

Lake Alexandrina versus River Murray

Since the end of 2006, due to diminishing flows along the River Murray, the level of Lake Alexandrina has fallen by almost 2 metres.  At the same time the salinity of the “fresh water” in the Lake has increased from a relatively stable 750 mg/L of salt to more than 4,000 mg/L.  In early 2008 the water drawn from Lake Alexandrina reached salt levels above 2,500 mg/L.  This triggered concerns that the use of such salty water would rapidly lead to vine decline and eventually death.  FABAL had to secure an alternate source for the vineyard’s irrigation water.

In April 2008, Marathon Water was created as a joint venture between FABAL and another grape grower in Langhorne Creek, CMV Farms, to construct a 42 km pipeline to draw River Murray water from above Wellington on the River Murray and pump it to the vineyards in Langhorne Creek.  No longer was it necessary to draw water from the receding shoreline of Lake Alexandrina.

This secured not only access to River Murray water at a time when access to pumping sites in the Lake has been difficult, but also at a salinity that is more suitable for application to the grapevines without causing them significant stress.

Following the development of the Marathon Water pipeline and direct and indirect investment in the new Creeks Pipeline Company (a government backed community pipeline for Langhorne Creek built in late 2009), the irrigation water for the vineyard projects at Langhorne Creek is sourced and transported via these pipelines from the River Murray, effectively bypassing the unreliability of sourcing water from Lake Alexandrina.

Desalination

Because of the high salinity of the groundwater below the vineyard and the increasing salinity of the Lake, in late 2007, FABAL established a reverse osmosis (RO) plant on the Kayinga Vineyard in Langhorne Creek to secure reliability of quality water supply to the vineyard.

RO is the preferred method to reduce water salinity and entails filtering out salts, under high pressure, through membranes.  The RO plant allows the vineyard to desalinate underground water from the aquifer.

The underground water, due to its high salinity, is not suitable untreated for long term use for irrigation, but after desalination provides a high quality resource that provides an alternative water supply.

After desalination, the water is stored underground as part of the ASR project, to be withdrawn and applied as irrigation.

Irrigation System

Water is supplied to the grapevines through a series of pumps and mainlines according to the irrigation design commissioned for the vineyard.  From the mainlines, the irrigation water is then supplied to the grapevines within each row via a network of drippers.

The dripper system is considered the most effective irrigation system for grapevines, as it ensures efficient supply of irrigation water directly to the entire root zone maintaining an optimal level of growth, while minimising the off-target and evaporative losses associated with other forms of irrigation (such as sprinklers of flood irrigation).

The irrigation system is controlled by a computer network which enables the efficient application of water through centralised control. Back-up pumps are also located on the vineyard and generators are accessible for extended power cuts – this ensures that any breakdowns do not jeopardise the trees health.

Grape Varieties

The mix of wine grape varieties used on Kayinga Vineyard has been selected to ensure that specifications of the grape buyer are met at an economic production level.

The varietal mix of the project is shown in the following chart.

The most important variety in the GuildGrape vineyard Shiraz, representing 44% of the plantings.

The Shiraz variety comes from the Hermitage area of the Rhone Valley in France where it is known as Syrah.  Its origin is uncertain – some suggest it was brought to France by hermits from Shiraz in Iran, others that the Roman legions brought it form Syracuse.

In Australia, Shiraz is grown in all viticultural areas and is used in the production of all types of red wine.  While it is usually made into a single varietal wine, it can also be successfully blended with other varieties including the white grape, Viognier, to add apricot tones to the wine's nose and palate.

Vineyard Managers

Russell Schutz, Regional Manager – Langhorne Creek

Russell joined FABAL in 1997 as the Assistant Vineyard Manager at Marandoo Estate. 

Russell was previously a principal of Murphy & Schutz, gaining more than 10 years’ experience in vineyard development and management across most of Australia.  He also has 10 years’ experience in the building industry.

Russell was appointed the Vineyard Manager in 2000 and is now the Regional Manager – Langhorne Creek,  overseeing four vineyards in the Langhorne Creek area, the Marandoo Estate Vineyard (360 ha), Kayinga Vineyard (295 ha) and two Belvidere Vineyards (151 ha). 

Russell also manages and controls the day to day operations of the Belvidere Vineyard.

As Regional Manager of more than 870 hectares of mature vineyard, Russell supervises technical staff, co-ordinates vintage across all of Langhorne Creek in conjunction with the wineries and transport companies and assists Ashley Keegan, the General Manager – Viticulture to maintain the vineyards at peak production.

Russell has also been a strong mentor for many staff that have progressed through the viticultural operations in the projects managed by FABAL.

Nick McDonald, Vineyard Manager – Kayinga Vineyard

Nick joined FABAL in 2001 as the Vineyard Manager of Kayinga Vineyard at Langhorne Creek and is responsible for all aspects of the operations and management of the vineyard.

Nick has previously managed a 60 hectare vineyard in the Adelaide Hills and was viticulturist for a vineyard management and development company in Western Australia.  Nick also worked for a UK winemaking consultancy at the largest winery in the south west of France.

Nick was also the Technical Assistant at Foster’s (previously Southcorp Wines) 1,300 ha Coonawarra Vineyards and in their central region covering the Clare, Barossa and Eden Valleys and McLaren Vale grape growing regions.