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We're going behind the scenes to see and understand modern agriculture, because no matter whether you're in it or not, you probably don't know all the pieces to just how incredible, diverse and multi-layered agriculture is. We do this by uncovering the real stories, experiences and voices of modern agriculture.
Speaker 1 0:06
Lions are a long term proposition here at brand new, our oldest video answer 170 years old and they're still very productive. We have the oldest need for a while and seeing the world in South Australia and Australia in general. That's something that a lot of people wouldn't realise that that genetic material is the best genetic material in the world. And it's been one of our, and the line secrets of their success, that we still have these original lines on their own roots. And I think that was one of the things that when you see those great ones you go, I'd love to do that. So that inspired me to really, I think I've gone up role liaison working with growers is fantastic. And I love working with farming families, because they're just really honest. And they're such hard workers and I, I learned so much about what I do today from grape growers.
Oli Le Lievre 0:58
We chatting to a few of the 2023 Syngenta growth award winners and today I'm chatting to Nigel Blusky, who's the sustainability advisor category winner Knodel is actually the second year that we've had the chance to chat with people. And I think as part of this, you're the first viticulturalist we get but I really want to understand, like the influence of agriculture for you. Where did it start? And what are some of your early memories in and around agriculture.
Speaker 1 1:22
I grew up on a farm sheep and cattle farm up in the southern Flinders Ranges South Australia. So I grew up on a quite a hilly farm right in the backwaters of the Flinders Ranges. So I went early memories, were helping it, you know, muster sheep and drafting sheep with my dad. And sharing was always a big highlight, you know, Mom would cook all the good food and we'd eat with the shears and you know, help around in the shearing shed. So that was my real experience of agriculture. And, you know, a farm was quite isolated. So we had to drive through lots of gates. So the other really big influence on me was opening gates. We had nine gates before we got to the farm. So I always good at opening gates. I don't like doing it. But that was my early memories.
Oli Le Lievre 2:04
Did it shut your interest in ag, were you lucky enough to get away from an area where I'm needing to open gates for lost I can close them after me.
Speaker 1 2:11
I guess. My early experience didn't excite me about being a sheep farmer. I didn't mind cattle farming. But yeah, I think it was I was the second son. So my older brother was, he was more into the sheep side of things. So I think I love farming, but I wasn't gonna be a sheep farmer. So hence where I've ended up.
Oli Le Lievre 2:30
Can you tell me a little bit about the Flinders Ranges and like the types of people and characters because you said it's pretty isolated, but my take of it is that it is very, very remote.
Speaker 1 2:39
I grew up in the southern part of Salinas, which was actually the wet weather about 650 mil rainfall. So it's the Flinders is very nice got kilometres in length. So from the south of the North, it's quite a diverse, it's a lot drier in the northern parts of the Flinders Ranges, the southern parts, were not that isolated. So but our farm was behind a mountain called Mount remarkable. So you had to drive through lots of crepes and, and to get to the actual farm, so we got to house further away, but it was so it was a lot of driving through, you know, different paddocks to get to get out to where we're at far more so. So it was quite a weird area. So you know, high rainfall, lots of creeps lots of dams, so it's a great place to grow up beautiful scenery is fantastic. Lots of Vivegam drugs. So I actually growing up, I was very interested in all that native vegetation and all the animals and plants and stuff. And so when I actually left school, I went and studied natural resource management at Roseworthy. College, that was more my interest rather than rather than chasing sheep, as it once
Oli Le Lievre 3:39
did, you have an idea or someone who you're modelling that kind of career off, like an idea of where you wanted to go,
Speaker 1 3:44
we were surrounded by national parks on three sides. So I actually, you know, though very beautiful part like parts of South Australia. So that was something that really, I was really quite interested in, because all the native vegetation that we had around us, which is positive, in some ways are negative and others for reasons that you know, the national parks were very different. What we were doing that did definitely inform me and my grandfather was, he knew every plant every bird, it was big importance on us as young kids and when I went to was a high school, a couple of guys went to university and studied environmental science. So I sort of had a bit of an insight into, you know, what was potentially out there. But when I went to university was also the biggest wine and wine marketing university in Australia. Um, so as it turned out, I love that environmental side of it, but I discovered wine when I was at university and ended up sort of following that path in the end. What
Oli Le Lievre 4:35
was it about because I can see as you start talking about it, you got a big smile on your face. So there must have been something off. You
Speaker 1 4:41
know, I guess when I was at uni, I started with meeting all these guys that were in wine and I really enjoyed wine, which was always a good start. But so yeah, and that gave me a lot of talking to these guys. And when I was studying and drinking wine I really started to you know, we were right next door to the Barossa Valley. So we often go and visit the Barossa Valley so they sort of piqued my interest in through a few other friends and family, we had relatives that were in the wine industry. And some just meeting those over the time, it really was something that I got a lot more interested in. And we're actually when I left uni, there wasn't any land Ellis before landcare. So early 90s. And there wasn't any jobs in environmental science or environmental work. So one of the things that a lot of people will do with do with vintage work in vintage, so work at the wineries during that harvest. And after I left university without a lot of idea where I was going to go, I ended up doing a wine vintage down in the Riverland for Penfolds, and then one led to another and eventually I decided that I was going to go on, do a bit more study and when viticulture. So
Oli Le Lievre 5:44
what were the opportunities like and Eric was it to go and work inside a winery or have the studies kind of shaping. Initially it was
Speaker 1 5:53
a winery side of things, was doing some money or wanted to do a bit of travelling as well. So you know, the winery is paid pretty well during harvest. But as I said, I grew up in a place that was pretty pristine and open and I wasn't a good I wasn't I'm not a good person in a winery. I did it for a few years. And I ended up taking a job at pathway in the southeast after I left university and I worked in rural merchandise for a while doing that for a while sitting in a shop. And I could see lots of guys working in vineyards. And I started to really think well actually, this is not a bad idea. So I ended up enrolling in a graduate study in viticulture. And while I was doing that I was working in VR. So I started my career actually trainee vines and up in the Clare Valley. So I when I was studying postgraduate, I went and actually worked in ers and trained vines and learn how to prove on it's something that I've done ever since
Oli Le Lievre 6:43
this is something that is quite important as a as a vineyard manager to actually have spent the time at the grassroots level.
Speaker 1 6:50
Absolutely. I think, you know, learning how to prune when you prune a grape vine, because it's a perennial plant, it's the way you structure the vine is really important. And that is probably the most fundamental thing about growing wine grapes is, you know, having a balance between vegetative growth and also crop level. But unless you've actually pruned a vine, it's really difficult to get the understanding about what that means. And certainly knowing how to set up a vine and set up with Vinyard. You know, the more you've worked in it, the better that, you know, the better you do it. It's very easy to learn from a textbook, but it's another thing to actually look at it. I don't understand what's going on.
Oli Le Lievre 7:27
And so this is a very uneducated assumption here as well. So you can challenge me on it, not all but when it comes to the pruning. To me, it seems like in Australia, we use a lot of backpackers or acela, relatively unskilled labour, but can you get it quite wrong? Like in the pruning stages, if someone nixed the wrong part? Oh, absolutely,
Speaker 1 7:45
yeah, definitely. With the when you're setting up a young vine, you really need to establish the framework of the vine really quickly. So if you get the wrong people in that really can set you back many years. So you know, it depends a bit on where you are, like, if you're in a cooler climate, like the Barossa Valley, where I'm based is quite a dry climate. So disease pressures, not potentially as high as say in the late bills or in Yarra Valley, those areas. So in a wetter climate, you need more open canopies to get your preventative sprays in and, and let the air and light come in. But interestingly, it's very critical in a wet climate, but also in a hot climate, where we find more and more of the blinds proved poorly, there's lots of growth in the heat and temperature then become an issue. So airflow is also really important in a hot climate. So you know, you can get it really wrong. It can make the difference between being very good and not so good. Yeah,
Oli Le Lievre 8:40
what would I need to understand about the wine industry at that stage in your career? Where was that in Australia to understand how and why your career is probably shacked up the way it has.
Speaker 1 8:50
Okay, so when I started in the wine industry, that just come out of the 80s, which was really poor time for the industry, there was a lot of bias. There was actually a paid vine Paul scheme in the Barossa Valley in the 90s, a new era, there was a lot of young winemakers going to Europe and started making some really great wines that really caught the attention in in UK particularly. And so there was a lot of companies that really started to take off Peter Lehman's and a few of that the wineries like that had gone to Europe and really created a bit of buzz around the industry. So the industry was looking to expand, there was a lot of demand for red wine. So at that time, there was a viticulture course created at the University of Adelaide. And again for the guys that I studied with had gone and done postgraduate studies. So so the industry was on. So there was a demand for a lot of new people to come into the industry viticulture side of things winemaking and there was a real buzz around Australian wine. And I happened to be studying with some of the I guess if you look at some of the great one magazines throughout history that were at University at the time that I was there, so it was a very formative time for the industry. So I was very lucky to be at Union mixing with some of the, I guess a couple of some of the great Australian winemakers that are now, you know, a top of the industry. So they sort of inspired me to get into the industry.
Oli Le Lievre 10:09
What was it about Australian wines that started it? Yeah, I guess, cut it straps on the world stage,
Speaker 1 10:15
I think we over delivered at every price point. So a lot of headlines, you know, were seen as you know, sunshine in a bottle and all these sorts of things. And there was a lot more serious wines coming out. But they're also at a very competitive price point. And in a market like the UK, which was then the biggest market for wine in the world, you still use but it's it was, it was the barrier to being at the wines that they want maximum tangled up to England particularly really got people excited because they were as good as the French. And that was was supplying their market, you know, as one of the biggest suppliers and the Italians. So it really created a buzz around the industry. And we've had a real growth phase through that late 90s. and into the early noughties.
Oli Le Lievre 10:56
What I was interested in was how was Australia marketing at once. So it started to get a bit of a footprint on the global stage a bit of interest. But how are we talking about what Australia produced?
Speaker 1 11:05
I think initially a lot of it was the larger companies talking more about, you know, like, I guess you had Jacob's Creek and there was Oxford landing, there's a range of brands, generally multi regional, and to a price point. So sunshine and bottle was one of the things they talked about Chardonnay. And but I think its value for money was initially probably one of the big things that that sold the wines, less about regions and less about, you know, individual horror ideas, but more about styles and, and reaching price points. And at that point, a lot of their market was dominated by supermarket buyers. So they were looking for certain price points in Australia. So that delivered at most price points, but it wasn't a lot of premium, really top end premium wines at that point in time. But certainly those those initial brands opened up a lot of markets for Australian wine. Was
Oli Le Lievre 11:55
it difficult for the industry to move beyond that, like positioning itself as that affordable piece into the trying to be more high end? And yes, and bougie?
Speaker 1 12:03
Yes, absolutely. And, you know, the business I work with Tobert started in 1994. And one of the ways that I think this business and a lot of businesses actually lifted their profile is getting scores from some of the really influential wine writers in Europe, and then us particularly Robert Parker's one that comes to mind. And so there's a few although there was always an entry point wine, more and more wine writers were taking best wine seriously. You know, the henskee is full of grace and Penfolds Grange in the late 90s started to get some really high scores. And that really opened up a lot of doors, particularly with toric. We had a wine we've got a wine Runrig, which is all from 100 year old vineyards. And that was a $50 wine, it got 100 point score, and then all of a sudden was selling at $250. Bottle. So it was hard. But you know, there was there's definitely the wines, there were wines there that the rest of the world had seen. But it took the I guess that we started at the bottom and worked our way up and are now very successful at pretty much across the spectrum at one styles.
Oli Le Lievre 13:04
And if we just jump back a little bit, what was your career like as the industry was growing? How were you growing your career and what were the options that you were pursuing?
Speaker 1 13:12
I sort of really got into the wine industry when I met all these winemakers. I then went and did some vintages and decided and worked in in different agricultural areas and then went back and did a postgraduate certificate before I finished that. At that stage, there was like 60 winemakers graduating a year from the University of Adelaide and there was six viticultural students that graduated, we all got jobs before we finished university. So I started working in at a larger we're going to be out in the river lane, at way crew and as a technical officer. So my job was to improve water quality. And I started working with salt and Western monitoring, and I guess pest control and disease control, what are the signs and all that sort of stuff. So that was my first few years in the industry was working on technical viticulture, which is something that's always been really fascinated about, I love trial work I love you know, studying stuff. And then after a couple of years of doing that thing, I actually had a bit of influence on helping to improve the wine orally from those vineyards and, and then started working with grape growers in the Barossa Valley and around South Australia, including iOS actually worked in Victoria as well. So I moved from technical viticulture into grow grow liaison and used to schedule all the fruit coming into the winery and, and all that sort of stuff. So that was the first move into more managing sort of grape in tight and great roles. So that's when I started working with about around 150 growers at any time. So it was a pretty interesting time seeing lots of different vineyards in lots of different radius.
Oli Le Lievre 14:41
Absolutely it would was that a natural progression? Like is that a pathway that most people would take? Or was it something that you just decided you
Speaker 1 14:47
do in that time? There was a lot of people new winemakers, new viticultural people that came through. There was obviously the vineyard management side of things. You can do my tractor driving and all that that sort of stuff. But because I'd studied at university, I guess we I went more in that role liaison and advisory type of role at that stage. And there was a lot more of that a lot of the big companies had multiple roles liaison, I guess, offices around. So that was one of the main sort of entryways into the industry, other than being a vineyard operator,
Oli Le Lievre 15:18
did you have like a plan or strategy around your career? Like, was there something that was keeping you at that advisor level as opposed to within one vineyard,
Speaker 1 15:27
so I guess early on, I probably didn't really have a lot of plan. But I was very lucky, the wine site in viticulture, you can be very much focused at the vineyard site. But for me, I was always very interested in the wine. So we do a lot of wine tasting. So I had to actually assess wine and work with our winemakers. So that, for me opened up a whole new avenue of of, of interest, because the company I was at Yolanda, who I used to work with there, were also major importer of wine. So we were very lucky that we got to try a lot of international wines. So a lot of our competitors wine. And so that really was fascinating to see the different styles. So when I was involved with the winery, grow as on site, I was also tasting wines without winemakers. So that really gives you a lot of interest, because you can see all these great producers in and I think that was one of the things that when you see those great wines, you go well, I'd like to do that. That's I want to be you know, that's amazing. That's great one. So that inspired me to really, I think I've gotten to grow liaison working with growers is fantastic. And I love working with farming families, because they're just really honest. And they're such hard workers and I, I learned so much about what I do today from grape growers, and I look at the way they grew their vineyards, and I look at the wine that they made in the water. And I go, wow, that's that you can see their way they're growing the grapes leading to great wine. And so I learned a lot. And also, you know, I want to be as good as these, the French or the Italians or the you know, the Americans, whoever it was, that was I was like, right? We can do that. I saw when we when we got it right in our finance, and our winery. We were as good as anyone. And I think that's partly what drives me is I want to be the best. We are the best. You know, and I think in our regional where I work now the grace valley to you know, there's 6/7 generation grape growers, who probably don't really understand that they've got the oldest wines in the world. And we produce the great wines of the world and a source of fire in your belly. Like I want to do that. We can do that. And at that stage, there was a very optimistic industry that was on the way out certainly late 90s. It was very inspiring. I'm really interested in
Oli Le Lievre 17:40
like somewhat surprised that we have the oldest violins in the world.
Speaker 1 17:44
Yeah. Also your head flocks euro, which is a an aphid that came through from the American when America was founded, all that sort of stuff. They bought wines from America, which had a bug called flusher, the European wines didn't weren't used to flocks here, and basically what they won industry out in the 18 1830s through to the 60s, so they had to replant they grafted onto American rootstocks. So they can still grow the varieties but they've got a American rootstock. Fortunately, mostly in Australia, we don't have it. So there's areas in Victoria that do that South Australia quarantine itself in 1895, basically, between 1895 and 1960, there was no bind for into South Australia. So we've been able to keep the luxury out of South Australia for over 100 years. So that's why we have the the oldest for new for violence in the world, in South Australia, and Australia. So yeah, that's something that a lot of people wouldn't realise that that genetic material is the best genetic material in the world. And it's been one of their, I guess, underlying secrets of their success is that we still have these original artists on their own roads that, you know, when you graft, and you add another genetic thing into that vine, it changes the overall picture of the mind. And they lost that genetic diversity of all those different videos. So yeah, so it's quite a tough, not very people actually understand that. But it is very significant. Now. That is cool.
Oli Le Lievre 19:04
Question. Now, I know that you are very competitive. I could tell that very briefly. But what does it take to be like a world class, winery and vineyard? Like, what are the characteristics of a business that excels?
Speaker 1 19:16
I think you have to have a, I've heard people talk about before patient capital, I think you'd have to have a long term view of where you want to be, you know, you've got to have, it's, you've got to an aim. You know, you want you want to do that helps, but you've got to have patience, because vines are a long term proposition here. They're a perennial plant, you know, our oldest vineyards are 170 years old, and we're still very productive. So you have to have, you have to be of that mindset that I'm going to be patient. I'm going to want to work at this. It's not, you can't just create something great in a short period of time. So it's that long term view. I think, for me, it's attention to detail. You know, it's the one percenters you've got to understand the industry you're in and the plants You Waiting For us, it's plants, no more animals, whatever. But you, you really need to know those plants. And we, you know, we what we do, we don't manage any one block the sun, every block has its own characteristics. So it's taking that time to understand what what is important in those particular vineyards or books that we work with. But it's attention to detail, you really need to be looking at it and studying it working on it. And for great one, it's actually that not doing more, it's doing less, to be honest, which is harder doesn't make sense. But the more you feed it, the more you grow it, probably the less intense you get. Interesting.
Oli Le Lievre 20:38
And then within all of that, how do you manage trends? And how do you go like fad vers emerging trend?
Speaker 1 20:46
It's a good question. Because, for us, the valley for where we are, we've got Shiraz in our dance. It's certainly not the variety that everyone wants at the moment. But I guess we've always stuck in what we do well, it suits our environment. So it's very easy to get drawn into art. This is the latest trend. You know, orange wine is a trend at the moment. And And look, there's some really good ones out there. But again, I think you've got to focus on what you do well, and, you know, obviously, the vineyards have survived 170 years, you know, they're suited to our environment. So again, it's trying to filter out what is, you know, I think a lot of the warm economy is that we're making full bodied wines, not necessarily the most trendy thing at the moment. But I guess when we really focus on one quality, if it's a good example of a full bodied wine, it's still selling quite successfully. So it's not chasing the trends. It's more about sticking to your knitting, as they say in the art that it's in it stick to your knitting. And that's what we do. I think that's very important, you know, not getting caught up in all the trends.
Oli Le Lievre 21:44
So I've got a question. It's been a few weeks since you're announced as the sustainability advisor winner for the Syngenta growth awards for 2023. So what is it like to be recognised by an award like this?
Speaker 1 21:58
It's a little bit embarrassing. I wasn't really expecting to when I looked at the quality of the people, and there's been some great stuff. It's very personally rewarding for me. But I think, yeah, I don't want to make too big a deal out of it. And it's not really my thing. But it's very great. We had a winner. And I like to think that it's good for in agriculture. Probably viticulture is not a big boy and winemaking is not a big part of it. But it's good for our industry to have some, you know, some positive news out there. And, and I hope it you know, like in any agriculture industry, we're struggling to get people into our industry. So for me, good news is any good news story is a good thing, because it is a good career. And it's a great industry, I think we're very well class, the industry. And I don't necessarily think that people really understand that. So again, I think it's good for the industry as a whole to have, you know, people winning some sustainability warns
Oli Le Lievre 22:47
you said a bit embarrassing, but I don't think it is at all, because looking at the list of people that were narrowed down to be the regional award winners. And then ultimately, the national finalists, which you got, it's a pretty unreal group of people in all the different categories. Yeah,
Speaker 1 23:03
definitely. It's great to be able to, you know, we met up for the awards and the talk to those guys, I don't think I ever want to stop learning, it's so good to meet different people in different industries. And, you know, I think that I'm really looking forward to as a study tool that we're going to do next year, because there's so many things that I see in agriculture, and we often learned technology from other agricultural things. So to meet people doing that, and you know, that of working with different people, it's, it's great to get that experience. And I've been lucky in my career to be able to travel, and I may not necessarily be able to directly relate something to, but to actually get that experience and see what people are doing in other industries, stuff that has been really beneficial for me is so viticulturist to actually maybe take something out of the technique that someone's using and adapting it for what we're doing. So I think it's a wonderful experience to be able to meet those people and just talk to the fair, see what they've been,
Oli Le Lievre 23:56
you'll definitely be a very popular person to have around the table when it comes to bringing the wine list. Yeah, yeah. Is that something you've sought out throughout your career, like the ability to be able to cross pollinate across different ag industries, is that something which you think will be something like that you'll really focus on over the next 1218 months as part of this,
Speaker 1 24:15
you know, before I sort of got into viticulture, I've worked in different parts of the industry. And so I've always had a bit of an understanding of different industries, but certainly that the Ag tech is something that I've been lucky enough to be in my career actually do a lot with, you know, soil moisture probes and near infrared, they sort of stopped but more and more looking at broadacre farming as a leader, you know, that AG tech sphere. So yeah, I think we are definitely viticulture is a bit more. It's harder to mechanise you know, in a vineyard situation, but, you know, again, we've got the same challenges in terms of workforce. So I'm really looking at other industries to who are probably a bit more early adopters than we are, but it's very important to keep your eyes focused outside of just What you do because there is so much technology coming there can be benefit for everyone
Oli Le Lievre 25:03
100% Totally agree.
Speaker 1 25:05
And you know, we've got some young agricultural apprentices working for us now part of the bad draw card is to try and with the next generation is actually technology and saying well, you can get to draw you know, the new tractors. I grew up on messy one through five tractors and to get into new fant it's a bit scary, that they're all touchscreen, and but the the younger guys that we've got it just their labour, you just press, you can adjust everything. It's just first. So guys, it's, it's a bit more daunting, but if we can get people into our industry, you know, they'd like doing that stuff. That's fantastic.
Oli Le Lievre 25:39
So tell me a little bit more about the team that you've got it to Brooke and what are you guys going? You've touched on a little bit that yeah, what are you guys doing and the types of farming that you're doing as well.
Speaker 1 25:47
So we own vintage lace 130 hectares of vignette, we've got a lot of bit of other native vegetation stuff. So we've managed more land by team consists of myself, I'm the overall Vinyard viticulturalist for the company. And I have a technical viticulturists. And an operations manager, who are more senior people told me is my technical assistant he tend to provide, he oversees a lot of irrigation and all that sort of stuff. And then I've got senior operator and I've got two young apprentices that have worked through their business. And they decided that viticulture was worth while and there's been some excellent opportunities to get some grants to get some apprentices on board. So basically, we look after vineyards ranging from young videos on the views guide up to 170 outline. So some are mechanised. Some are irrigated, and we still have guidelines in yard. So as you know, we we maintain all that, obviously, disease control, pruning, but we actually use external contractors for pruning. But very much because of the age and the, I guess these the importance of these vineyards, we still go raise amount of hand detail ourselves and also do a lot of training with our people that we get into our irons aren't just bought in off the street, they're that we try and keep a very small team, who we work with every all through the season. So that's been really good. We've actually gone to our contract and said, we just want to sign and we trained, and they now love company working for us. So they do our pruning, training, thinning, and then our grape picking. So it's amazing when you get the same people looking at the vines throughout the season. So we're not we're very passionate, we still do a bit of pruning into really key blocks ourselves. But overall, because of the size of the vineyards, it's really critical to have people that actually that attention to detail talked about before, you really need to invest your timing in the people who worked in the vineyard. So if pence having the same sort of people coming back makes a massive difference. I think it helps with that. But I know it helps with our overall quality. We were, you know, our videos look really good. They're praying well, and they get the job, right. But so yeah, so again, we do use irrigation, but we try and use the least amount of irrigation that we can, which for air quality product makes a big difference. So
Oli Le Lievre 28:06
a question I've got for you in terms of where where viticulture is heading into the future, I guess we touched on trends and fads and things. One of the ones that probably isn't disappearing is consumer and society's interest in lower emissions and greenhouse gases and all of that. Just how are you guys? I guess adapting to also the new world that we live in? And do you see it as a challenge or as a exciting opportunity?
Speaker 1 28:31
I definitely think it's an opportunity. I guess, you know, with my background in when I was at uni I majored in software management. So I made a lot of interest in soils before I even got into viticulture, but we're talking about it. Before I came on, we've got these old wines, the world heritage. So we're very mindful that we are kind of custodians of these old vineyards. So when I started at torbreck, I had the opportunity to manage some vineyards that had that hadn't been no investment in it. But my one cool thing was to make sure that we looked after the soils and the vines, the best we could so that they are there for the next generation, they can still live for, you know, three 400 years, no problem. So they're 170. Now, so fundamentally, I was really focused on how do we maintain and improve what we have here. So this regenerative farming idea. So when I started here at torbreck, there was a lot of issues in terms of buying bigger, and there were some poor soils. So I really got thrown in the deep end. I was like, How do I manage this stuff? I had all the confidence online, so I'm always on that path. Anyway. As it turns out, I do a lot of work with our customers customers come to torbreck all the time. And I do a lot of touring around and talk about the vineyards. So it's my focus on that and the people I work with a very, also really passionate about that. So as it's turned as we sort of moved through this process of we've done a lot of work with our soils we've put in a lot of mulches undermine where we've stopped cultivation, we've slowed down past Is with using shaping out in yards. And, you know, we were talking about we were doing these things, it's been a wonderful process because as in the last eight years, we've seen that customers who visit that story is resonating. So not only is it great for our minds, and that makes me feel good, that consumers, they're buying into it, but we'd like to talk about what we're doing. You know, it's there's a lot of people that are in industry that we're now in wine that talk about it, they don't have their own vineyards, but they're organic, and do this. And I think there's a bit of that. Brainwashing that, you want to be able to say you have the credentials, but we we'd like to live there. And with the old vines, you know, we're seeing the yields are more sustainable, we have a few Trump diseases that get into these old vineyards, and we've worked with our pruning to actually to really eliminate as much of that disease, but grow a better healthier vine. So again, it really flowing together, the ideas are actually resonated with, with the consumers, and people love the story of the Art Barn. So, you know, it helps when you're trying to really look after them. So, and I think we are getting better a lot better wines and certainly better consistency, by focusing in on, I guess, regenerative farming, you know, understanding the things that driver advise. So, yeah, so, you know, again, I think it's just a natural progression, we want to be able to lead over yards in a better position with them. And the old farming techniques in our area were cultivation. You know, they didn't water and I grew dry land, but the soil side of it, you know, after 100 years of cultivation, there was issues coming up. So, again, we it's been nice to be part of that movement away from those older practices in your practices. And again, I think it's hit that at the time, you know, coming into the where we are now, it's really important to their stories there to in your toolkit, for sure.
Oli Le Lievre 31:48
Well, it sounds like it has been quite an evolution in your career. One thing I'd love to know, having experienced what you have now seeing the industry where it's at, if you were starting again, and stepping out of university, what would be a pathway that you'd be looking to pursue?
Speaker 1 32:05
I think one of my, I would say to the and I say to some of the students who will actually come and see me now is actually learn how to printable and actually get into Vinyard, getting a tractor, actually learn the hands on things. Because we're working with a living plant, a living organism, I think the best grape rolls that I ever saw, were in their opinions. There's a lot of people that drive around in tractors, and they don't actually get out of the Union out of the out of the tractor. They like being in the tractor, so that's good, that's all fine. But get out and get your hands dirty, before you study, because study teaches you to think and critically think, but actually do the work in the vineyard. Because it is a handle thing and not the other thing I would say is, it did never hurt me to work in the winery and understand a little bit as well. So our industry is a very still about relationships. So if you understand the product, it's a lot easier to talk about it. And having people from the vineyard side of things, it can actually talk about wine and beer. And more than just that in yon adds another level of integrity to what you do. So I'd say get out there and do it, but studied as well. Perfect.
Oli Le Lievre 33:13
We're not. Thank you so much for sitting down and having a chat with us. Thank you so much. And congratulations on being a Syngenta growth award winner and I can't wait to follow your journey. And maybe we'll catch up again to hear what it's like after the international study trip. Thank
Unknown Speaker 33:27
you very much. I love that. That'd be great.
Oli Le Lievre 33:31
Well, that's it for another episode from us here at humans of agriculture. We hope you're enjoying these podcasts. And well if you're not, let us know hit us up at Hello at humans of agriculture.com. Get in touch with any guests recommendations topics, or things you'd like us to talk and get curious about. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. Right subscribe, review it. Any feedback is absolutely awesome. And we really do welcome it so Look after yourselves. Stay safe, stay sane. We'll see you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai