The Fran­k­land River Region

Fran­k­land River is the coolest and most iso­lated wine-growing region in West­ern Aus­tralia. Over mil­lions of years the Fran­k­land River has cut through the region’s ancient sur­face rocks to cre­ate gravel-loam soils of mod­er­ate fer­til­ity that are ideal for grow­ing grapes.

The river val­ley also has a cru­cial influ­ence on the region’s cli­mate. In win­ter and spring it sucks cold air down to the South­ern Ocean (about 40 kms south from our vine­yard) dur­ing the night cre­at­ing air cir­cu­la­tion between land and sea that min­imises the dan­ger of vine-damaging frosts. In sum­mer it fun­nels cool and humid air north from the ocean mod­er­at­ing the after­noon heat to pro­vide a long, slow ripen­ing period for grapes.

Map of the lower Graet Southern region

The viti­cul­tural poten­tial of the region was first iden­ti­fied by the renowned US viti­cul­tur­al­ist Dr Harold Olmo in 1956. He noted that the cli­mate was sim­i­lar to Bor­deaux in France with cool sum­mers offer­ing opti­mum ripen­ing con­di­tions for wine grapes. Our Olmo’s Reward wine hon­ours his impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to the region.

The Fran­k­land River region is almost com­pletely free of wine pests and dis­eases. Its iso­lated loca­tion, far from pop­u­la­tion and indus­trial cen­tres, mean it is vir­tu­ally pol­lu­tion free and offers a pris­tine grape-growing environment.

Are you a terroirist?

As unashamed ter­roirists we are fas­ci­nated by the capac­ity of wines to trans­mit a sense of place. It’s a theme we return to often in our newslet­ter ‘Entwined’ - click here.

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