Passion and enthusiasm in Orange
Interview with Simon Gilbert, Winemaker, Brangayne of Orange
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Brangayne of Orange
Simon Gilbert is a fifth generation winemaker and is recognised as a quality custom winemaker within the top echelon of New World Winemakers.
He is also the winemaker for Brangayne of Orange turning the grapes from Brangayne into beautifully crafted award-winning wines that reflect the environment and cool climate of the Orange region.
"I’ve been associated with Orange through Don and Pamela Hoskins at Brangayne of Orange and what really excited me about the area, having only driven through it a few times beforehand, was it’s lushness and rolling hills. It's a little bit like South Australia where I come from, which is an exciting place also.
"The diverse range of topography obviously lends itself to the micro-climate characteristics and regimes in the area which is some 970 metres above sea level. What we have planted on this vineyard is chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, a little bit of pinot noir, particularly for the sparkling wine base. The other vineyard which is 4 or 5km from here is 100 metres lower in altitude, which is where we have reds only - cabernet sauvignon, merlot, shiraz and also pinot noir for red table wine.
"Everyone says winemaking starts in the vineyard, and that’s very, very true, particularly of these two sites, with the passion and enthusiasm that Don and Pamela Hoskins have put into this project. Don was previously an orchardist, primarily growing peaches and other stone fruits, and it was their enthusiasm that initially interested me and has maintained my interest in not just the Orange region, but particularly with this vineyard.
"The first vineyard was planted in 1994. With Don’s innate understanding of the land, having been born and bred in this area, and the combined cultural and viticultural practices employed within the vineyard, coupled with the winemaking practices that we’ve employed over the last few years since inception, has really put Brangayne on the map and certainly assisted putting Orange on the map as well. For example in the inaugural Bathurst Wine Show, Brangayne was successful in collecting the major trophies, 7 out of 8, ahead of some of the majors in the industry, so we were pretty excited with that. And we’ve been pretty excited with what we’ve been able to achieve since then, both nationally and also internationally.
"With any wine that we are making, we are endeavoring to ensure that we capture the fruit characteristics of the vineyard, and of the variety that we are making. We wish to I guess encapsulate those characteristics, refine those characteristics, not overpower those characteristics with oak or other winemaking influences, but to let the fruit come forward, and the Tristan which is a blend of cabernet, shiraz and merlot is a really good example of having achieved that.
"We need to start with the various blocks within the vineyard. We’ve been able to identify some blocks which consistently produce better quality premium fruit year after year after year. And it’s ensuring that we are able to monitor that fruit throughout the growing season, and ensuring that we are harvesting it at the exact point in time that we wish to, which is a balance of not just sugar level, but primarily flavour. And monitoring it all the way through the crushing, the clarification process, and also the subsequent barrel maturation, in the case of barrel matured red wines.
"We’ve got a very good idea of how the wine is going to perform when we harvest it in the vineyard, obviously the closer we get through the process of the winemaking, right up until bottling or pre-bottling when we are evaluating each individual barrel that this wine has come from.
"We obviously ensure that we only select the best barrels in the case of the Tristan and fine tune the blend prior to bottling and obviously it’s equally important as any other part of the process that we make sure we get the wine in the bottle in the most pristine, perfect condition that we can. That includes the monitoring of oxygen levels throughout the winemaking process and monitoring of oxygen levels particularly during the course of the final subsequent bottling.
"Everyone has passion and the remainder obviously is very much dependent upon your abilities to grow the right grapes and manage the business accordingly, and market the wine accordingly. Growing grapes and making the wine is the easy part; it’s selling the wine both nationally and internationally which is certainly more difficult in today’s climate.
"Don and Pam are a couple who have passion and drive and I’m very much a family orientated person as Don and Pam are. I think that’s what attracts us to each other. Not just our skills and abilities but the relationship we have built over the last few years, and the relationship we will continue to build on."
Regions
- Explorer Country (NSW)
- Orange (NSW)
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