About Patrick T Wines
All the grapes used to make our quality wines are sourced from our two estate owned and managed vineyards.
Our Coonawarra vineyard is a single, two-hectare vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon, which surrounds the Tocaciu family home.
“The first vines were planted around our home in the seventies. The quality of this fruit was fantastic, which lead to additional vines being planted in the eighties.”– Pat Tocaciu
The Coonawarra vineyard’s 3406 vines are low yielding, producing between one and two kilograms of fruit per vine, which results in 300 to 700 dozen bottles.
Our Wrattonbully vineyard features almost 55 hectares of vines containing three white and three red varieties. The stalactite and stalagmite calcite formations together with rich fossil beds belonging to the world heritage-listed caves lie beneath the vineyard – and serve as the foundations for its fertile soils and unique characteristics.
A variety of environmentally friendly practices are being used in both our vineyards, including both biodynamic and biological techniques. Biodynamic practices include the use of preparation 500, a cow horn-manure fertilizer mixture, prepared by filling a cow horn with manure and burying it in the autumn, allowing it to decompose, and then retrieving it in the spring. This is then mixed with water and applied using the fertigation system on our drippers.
Biological practices include the use of beneficial microbes on our Shiraz, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. These are applied with an air blast sprayer at low pressure so as not to harm the microbes. The microbes help to produce essential nutrients, which then can be taken up and used by the vines.
A natural compost is also applied to both vineyards, using aged compost made from cow and sheep manure, grape seeds, skins, stalks and canes.
Both vineyards are independently audited annually and comply with all international standards and we have a current HACCP plan. The vines continue to produce high quality fruit year after year, which is a credit to our team and the methods we employ.
