Viticulture

The site was chosen for its consistent and ancient soil and famous climate. Langhorne Creek is ostensibly a cool desert. After invariably sunny warm Summer days, a cooling breeze rises up, known as the ‘Lake Doctor'. The Dr. comes across Lake Alexandrina from the Great Southern Ocean, (often southerlies express from Antarctica) each and every afternoon paying a daily ‘house call' to our Zonte's Footstep modifying temperatures, especially overnight. Apart from encouraging all manner of water sports, the ‘Lake Doctor' ensures the vineyards retain the natural acidity required to make first class Verdelho and also aid in providing desirable topical fruit characters, making winemaking a veritable breeze for Mr. Ben Riggs, our reigning winemaker.

Zonte's Footstep vineyards have been meticulously created by Geoff Hardy, Viticulturist and Vigneron John Pargeter with more than six decades of viticultural experience committed to excellence, namely maximum grape quality combined with efficient vineyard management.

Zonte's Footstep's award winning viticulture for best practice and presentation, reflects the expert care of John Pargeter and his large on site team and their aim of world class, environmentally sustainable viticulture. Not just a picture of manicured vines and tree lined wind breaks, the vines run adjacent to wetlands on the lake-front, teeming with bird life, fish and frogs and magnificent red gums dotted along the river and lake front. The same land that the world's largest marsupial, our local Diprotodon dubbed a ‘giant wombat' roamed, for more than 20 million years until becoming extinct ten to twenty thousand years ago.