Description

Michael and Kerry Dunbabin have farmed at Milton since 1980 when the property was first purchased by our family.  It was in need of new infrastructure and redevelopment and gradually came to support 5500 Merino sheep for our prize winning wool.  We also grew a variety of other crops including carrots, onions, brassicas for seed, poppies and seed potatoes as well as grain and fodder crops for the sheep.  We grew tired of selling these crops and watching them be shipped off farm with no further input from us.  We decided to plant the grapes as a more sustainable crop with its basic structure still with us in the ground and a lot less impact on the soil.  So we set in and planted 2.5 HA in the deep red soils of our Cranbrook Syde property just across the river from our current site.  This site proved problematic for frost and vigour, so we started again on the dry, rocky free draining  soils on the old sheep paddock just by the cellar door.  The grapes were sold to Hardy’s for a few years whilst we learnt a lot about viticulture and then we launched our label in 2005

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