WHO WE WORK WITH
Four kinds of client, with fairly different needs. What they share is that the vineyard is somebody's actual money.
Owner-operators
Two to eight hectares, often a first vineyard. Usually engaged for a season of management oversight while the owner learns which decisions are actually theirs to make.
Established estates
Fifteen hectares and up with a vineyard manager in place. We work alongside the manager on specification and review, not over the top of them.
Investors and buyers
Pre-purchase site assessment, usually inside a due diligence window of two to three weeks. Blunt written advice, delivered before the money moves.
Wineries buying fruit
Grower liaison and specification for contracted blocks, so that what the winemaker asked for and what arrives at the weighbridge are the same thing.
WORKING ALONGSIDE A VINEYARD MANAGER
Where an estate already employs a manager, the consultant's job is not to second-guess them in front of the owner. We specify jointly, we review jointly, and where we disagree with the manager the disagreement goes in the report with both positions stated.
An arrangement that undermines the person who is actually in the vineyard five days a week will produce worse fruit, whatever the consultant's opinion was worth.
WHAT WE ASK OF CLIENTS
Access to the record
Spray diaries, yield history, previous laboratory results. Advice given without them is guesswork with an invoice attached.
A decision maker
Someone who can approve an operation inside a week. Vineyard timing does not wait for a quarterly board meeting.
Honesty about budget
We would rather specify the best programme available for the money than the ideal programme that gets half-done.