Kaesler Vineyards

Kaesler owns just over 37 hectares (92 acres) of vineyards in the Barossa Valley, the majority of which is old vine material planted in 1893, 1899, 1930 and in the 1960’s. Fruit is hand picked and hand pruned with irrigation kept to a minimum. Crop thinning is done in most years to reduce yields and maximise flavour with blocks kept separate until final blending.

Kaesler Home Block, Barossa Valley

Surrounding the winery is 28 hectares of vineyards. Soils are sandy clay loam, which in layman’s terms means we have sandy loam top soil for about 25cm and then it goes into a thick potter’s clay layer for the next 30-40cm. From there it is clay with small amounts of limestone dispersed throughout. Moisture is retained well in these soils, which is ideal for our hot, dry weather.

Marananga, Barossa Valley

Kaesler also owns 9.21 hectares (22.8 acres) of vineyards in the Barossa sub region, Marananga. This area is on the western side of the region about 10 minutes drive from the Kaesler winery. The soils on this site have a profile of 10-15cm of sandy loam followed by clay with limestone thinly dispersed.

Regenerative Farming

At Kaesler we strive to not only maintain but rebuild the soils, because at the end of the day we want to leave these precious old vines in better condition than we found them. It’s a process called ‘regenerative farming’ as it’s more than sustainability, it is a practice that constantly evolves so we are not just sustaining the environment we are improving it.

In 2002 soil testing in the ‘Old Bastard’ vineyard showed organic carbon of 0.3%, now due to our regenerative farming practices we have increased that to 1.4%. We introduced permanent pastures and widened the crop, from a traditional size, by one metre. This is a massive improvement. Despite each year the vines depleting the carbon, we have managed to remove carbon from the atmosphere and return it to the soil.