The Florita Vineyard

The Florita vineyard at Watervale is one of the area’s oldest. This is the vineyard where legendary winemaker, John Vickery, sourced the grapes for his great Leo Buring Rieslings of the 1960s and 1970s.

At a time when the South Australian Government had initiated a vine pull program in the mid-1980s to counter an oversupply of grapes and the industry was in a state of turmoil, Mark, Peter and John Barry went against conventional wisdom and purchased the Florita vineyard in 1986. Despite fruit being in oversupply and Riesling being overshadowed by a huge surge in popularity by Chardonnay, they knew that Florita was one of the best vineyards in the country and was crucial in their plans to produce premium Rieslings.

The unique soil composition is primarily loamy clay over limestone. Traditionally, vines from Florita are hand-pruned to a level of 40 buds per vine to maintain the intensity of flavour. The grapes are harvested in the cool of the night at their optimum ripeness to preserve the delicate Riesling flavours and to retain natural acidity.