Oldenburg's Philosophy - A Sense of Place

If one had to find a single word that best describes our overall philosophy it would be Balance. We realise that we are very fortunate with our terroir and know that we need to work in balance with nature as it is central to who, what, and where we are. Balance in the vineyard is essential to capture the best nature has to offer and equally we strive to make wines with great balance, complexity and elegance.

We strongly believe that the success of our wines will ultimately come from realising the potential that our vineyards and nature have to offer. Our terroir provides a unique combination of geography, climate, and soil types. They conspire with carefully selected varietals and clones to produce superb quality grapes. Our vineyard's elevation ranges between approximately 300m and 450m above sea level. This slightly lowers the average temperature and also provides for cooler night time temperatures. The position of the vineyard relative to the surrounding mountains has two unique and important aspects, firstly the cooler southeast summer winds balance the warm sunshine and secondly, the protrusion of Rondekop out of the valley extends the sunlight hours the vineyards receive. The row direction of the vines utilises the summer breezes to provide temperature regulation in the vineyard, and in conjunction maximises sunlight exposure. The spacing of the vines has been specifically determined to allow for the growth and vigour, leaving the vineyard in perfect balance. Our soils are varied and consist of four major categories, namely, Oakleaf, Glenrosa, Dundee and Hutton, blessing us with superbly high potential soils. We believe that it is this unique complexity of natural variables, which creates exceptional fruit. Also, great wines will ultimately come from optimising each vine's ability to produce grapes with the correct balance of acidity, sugars and physiological ripeness.

One of our core beliefs is that wine is an encapsulation of what nature does best. We believe that by working closely with nature we can ensure a consistent high standard of quality. This must be done with sustainability in mind. The principles of biodynamic and organic agricultural practices guide us in the vineyards. To this extent the less we interfere the better. We feel that it is wise to use an element of pragmatism with this approach in order to provide consistently high quality fruit. Methods practised include releasing predator bugs, such as wasps and ladybirds into the vineyard to do pest control; hay bales along the plant row to control weeds and reduce use of sprays; "fertigation"- using natural inputs such as seaweed compounds added with irrigation to provide nutrients, provide a few examples. Soil health is something of utmost importance, and therefore much of what we do attempts to ensure the development of a healthy soil microbial population. Mechanisation is limited and much work is done by hand including pruning, leaf removal, crop thinning, weeding and harvesting. Vineyards can survive and flourish for decades and even centuries, with the correct approach and care we believe ours will also.