Meet Scott & Bec
We're a husband and wife team working our hardest to give you the best examples of Eden Valley wine, running the process from planting and pruning the vines, managing every step and detail in the winemaking process, to bottling and packaging and then, having a yarn about it with you at the cellar door.
The Fernfield Family
The Fernfield team is made up by Scott and Bec Barr and their little helper Xavier. Dexter and Bandit the border collies should probably also get an honourable mention.
At Fernfield's estate you'll find Bec checking the finer workings of the winery or having a laugh at the cellar door. With qualifications in chemical engineering, she is well suited to understand the complexities of wines organic chemistry. Bec runs a tight ship in the winery using methods handed down from the original settlers, the Lillecrapps, along with the latest research and a well fitted out laboratory to ensure our wines are the best expressions of our beautiful Eden Valley terroir. Bec was lucky enough to be awarded the Australian Wine Communicators Cellar Door person of the year in 2021.
Scott is can often be found wandering through the vineyard, and in good weather probably doing a little more than really needs to be done. Scott has grown in up agriculture with his family farm in Pinery, taking a diversion to mechanical engineering and business management, before coming back to work with Wolf Blass and then run Fernfield with Bec. He has a keen nose and is often the chief sniffer, while Bec is the chief taster. He also enjoys the photography and design aspects of the business.
Xavier is Scott & Bec's young son. At five, his responsibilities including opening gates, herding sheep and looking cute (he's particularly good at the last one!).
Dexter and Bandit are our wine dogs, both energetic border collies who are often assigned to entertain visitors' children and dogs and are keen bird watchers... by this we mean any bird landing within 100m of the vineyards is quickly chased down and scared away.
The Fernfield Vineyards
Sustainably grown, intensely flavoured berries
The vast majority of our wines are grown on our estate, and are expressions of Eden Valley, our totally unbiased favourite wine region. However, we will occasionally go exploring further abroad and come across something special we would like to add to our range. This is a great aspect of being a little winery, we love to pick fruit that has particularly worked in the vintage conditions and make a little single batch for you to enjoy.
In our vineyard or when working with our local growers we apply a range of trellising systems including vertical shoot positioning, Smart-Dyson and Lazy-Ballerina all to suit the variety and style. We minimise shoot and bunch numbers to ensure good development of flavours, and canopy management such as leaf plucking and shoot topping is utilised to ensure a balance of sun and shade.
Modern sustainable practices are employed to ensure soil biological health including regular application of soil nutrients through compost, mulch and fertigation. With close monitoring of soil moisture, deficit irrigation practices are undertaken for minimal water use and optimal wine character development.
As the majority of our grapes are on the estate we can closely monitor the development with regular tastes and tests ensuring that the ideal harvest date is selected.
The Fernfield Winery
Hand plunged around the clock & basket pressed
After our grapes are hand-picked and gently de-stemmed, they are fermented with meticulous hand-plunging and delestage, to extract the best colours, flavours and aromas.
The wine is then pressed using the traditional basket-pressing method, with all wines closely monitored, tasted and tested throughout the pressing process. This hand-processing allows us to push the boundaries of fruit concentration while avoiding the harsh, herbaceous tannins which can be released from pumping over or unsupervised and heavy mechanical pressing.
Our reds are aged for 18 to 36 months in French and American oak, with the special care and attention only boutique wineries can provide, to ensure we obtain the optimal balance of depth and oak characteristics without overpowering the fruit flavours.