The Elms Vineyard and New Beginnings
The Elms Vineyard, at the western end of Felton Road, lies in a gently sloping, north facing valley cut into the Bannockburn hills at the southern extremity of the Cromwell Basin. Immediately above the vineyard lies Stewart Town and a large dam, where water was stored for sluicing the slopes of Bannockburn during the gold-rush, which started in 1862. The fact that this valley was untouched by the gold miners is possibly a reflection of the deep benches of heavy soil that form much of its structure: soils unlikely to hold significant amounts of gold. After the gold miners departed, the slopes were left for sheep to graze until 1991 when Stewart Elms discovered the site’s potential for great Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling. He started to plant in 1992 and Felton Road began.
With the complex variation in soil, slope, elevation and aspect; fruit from The Elms Vineyard is very varied in personality.