Our Vineyards
From the majestic wambuul valley
When people ask us what our favourite thing about being a vigneron is, more often than not, Mark and Sam give the same answer. Spending our working days outside. It’s the farming that excites us.
Having lived in the locality of O’Connell, half way between the towns of Bathurst and Oberon since 1995. The Renzaglia family have a deep connection to the granitic, rolling hills, West of the Great Divide of the Wambuul Valley.
We make wines with grapes from a variety of origins, both purchased or from any of the four vineyards we manage; Bella Luna (O’Connell), Mt Panorama Estate (Bathurst), Winooka Park (Gemalla) and Casey’s (Oberon).
The Fish, Campbells and Macquarie River are all called Wambuul by the Wiradjuri people. Our vineyards lay within the Wambuul Valley. The wines we title ‘Wambuul’ are a product of when we blend grape from our vineyards together.
The Single Vineyard wines are our top tier and exhibit the best possible examples of wines made from any of these vineyards.
The new Central Ranges Wines are made with fruit grown throughout the Central Ranges and exhibit less conventional wine making; the result is lighter bodied, more savoury and earlier drinking wines. Read more…
bella luna Vineyard
The Origin of the Renzaglia wine production story. Located at 780m elevation, the site features two distinct granite-derived soil types:
– Western end: Grey siliceous, sandy loam over light brown clay loam.
– Eastern end: Heavier red clay with pink granite bedrock fragments.
There has been two generations of planting:
– First planting in 1997 consisted of Chardonnay (I10V1) propogated from cuttings from the Canobolas Smith Vineyard in Orange. As well as Cabernet and Merlot
– 2021 plantings of Chardonnay (i95 and 548), Shiraz (1654, EVOVS12, Bests Selection, Entav 1042 & 470 and R6WV28), Tempranillo (326, 261 and 306), Sangiovese (Mat 7, Mat 6 and VCR 6) and Grenache (PDFS and BCRC38)
Bella Luna is where the Renzaglia Winery is located and has been for Mark and Sandy’s sons Sam and Paul it’s been home, all their life.
Winooka Park
Located a stones throw from the Fish River (Wambuul), on the South facing side of the Valley in the locality of Gemalla, this is where Sam and Jo live. The site includes two vineyards:
– An early 1990s planting with Traminer, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
– A 0.9 hectare vineyard from the early 2000s with Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.
The site is south-facing at approximately 800m altitude with grey/brown granite-derived sandy loam soils.
Our Practice
From a viticultural point of view, our overriding focus is on growing for quality. Our practices are deeply influenced by organic methods through the use of tillage, mulching and undervine mowing to manage weeds. Our disease management program leans heavily on biological nutrients, compost teas and tinctures alongside a judicious use of organic fungicides. It should be said that in extraneous circumstances, we do use curative fungicides to save a crop – this would in fact disqualify us from a claim to being certified organic but jeez we go very close!
In recent years we have started dabbling in biodynamics. Observing the biodynamic calendar, we’re often drawing lessons from events that are taking place within our vineyards. Our preparations of compost teas and tinctures is set to evolve within years to come as we start to grow and harvest certain botanicals and start to implement them into our vineyard spray program.
One of the greatest pleasures for any wine grower is the the slower, winter months. Pruning is one of our most pure, engaging and enjoyable tasks. We do all of our own pruning, it is the foundation of high quality wine. With the the original plantings of all of our vineyards around the 25 year age milestone, we have put a significant amount of work in to reworking many of the vines to strucutres that will guarentee more longevity.
The Renzaglia Wines were the original wines produced by Mark and Sandy with the first bottling in the year 2000 made from the Bella Luna Vineyard.
Mt Panorama Estate Vineyard
Situated within the iconic racing circuit on Mt Panorama Wahluu, this 2-hectare vineyard is planted with 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Shiraz, and 25% Chardonnay planted in 1999.
It sits at around 750m elevation with soils comprising river rocks, basalt, and granite.
Casey’s Vineyard
Our newest acquisition, the Caseys Vineyard was planted in 1995, around 1.3 hectares in size, it’s planted to Chardonnay, Shiraz and Pinot, elevation is 1050m, East facing and annual rain is 900mm.
This vineyard is quite unique compared to the other 3, whilst still on granite (which is rather uncommon once you get up over 900m in the Wambuul Valley) this vineyard is much more influenced by Easterly weather systems than the North Westerly systems that predominantly affect Bella Luna and Mt Panorama Estate being on the Eastern side of the great divide.
Being so high, it’s very cold here too with grapes being 3-4 weeks behind any of our other sites. We have started the production of a Non vintage, single site, method champenoise bubbles from this vineyard so stay tuned for that one.
visit us and taste our wines
Our cellar door in O’Connell is open for tastings and sales. Please contact us to arrange a visit.