This year marks another milestone in the Fermoy story – the release of its inaugural Geographe Vineyards 2008 Shiraz and 2009 Chardonnay.
Our winemaker, Liz Dawson, is confident this first offering will win many supporters and will be another step in convincing winelovers that the fledgling Geographe wine region, which is east of the internationally-known Margaret River wine region, is capable of producing superb fruit. Liz was really enthusiastic about our first Geographe Shiraz vintage, but 2009 vintage, now in the barrel at Fermoy looks really promizing too.
The grapes for the Geographe shiraz come from two sources – the Barecca vineyard in Donnybrook and Tony and Bernice O’Connell’s Mandalay Road vineyard in Mumballup. Knowing the O’Connells were producing high quality shiraz and last year, Liz took a trial shipment from the 30-hectare Barecca vineyard.
“The quality of the grapes convinced us that they could stand on their own feet,”.
“Hopefully it will help cement the Geographe region’s place on the wine map. Growers in this region are doing a fantastic job and deserve recognition but are having a tough time selling their fruit and wine. “Internationally everyone knows about Margaret River, the Barossa and the Hunter but who has heard of Geographe?”
The 09 Geographe Vineyards Chardonnay is from the Donnybrook vineyard of John Small.
Phil Barecca epitomises the Fermoy philosophy, which essentially comes down to “only the best will do.” Phil, a third generation fruit and vegetable grower who is a perfectionist, said his family had been growing their particular shiraz clone for more than 50 years. His grandfather Filippo, who is 93 and still makes his own personal wine, began with a couple of hectares of grapes just to make family wine.
They gradually got bigger and in 1994 they sold their orchard and bought a better property to concentrate on grapes. Mainly growing shiraz and chardonnay, they were associated with Cape Mentelle and Houghtons before striking up a liaison with Fermoy. They have had gold medal success at both the Mt Barker and Geographe Region wine shows.
“We have been growing grapes here for a long time and the shiraz has never let us down,” Phil said. “Our vineyard is pruned to a tonnage rate in order to control production and maintain quality.”