Australian Town and Country Journal at KellyGang 19/3/1870 (2)
The casks, which are of first-class Melbourne cooperage, contain from 600 gallons downwards, and the cooperage, ex carriage, was at the rate of 8d. a gallon. There are two presses; one on the primitive screw lever plan, and one by adjusting hardwood rollers on a principle of the proprietor's working out. The two year old white Shiraz and a red wine I tasted were superior to anything I had the opportunity of judging in the district. The hill soil is, as usual, a red loam with stones; the flats a white sandy soil. There is a reservoir of four acres constructed for household purposes; the vineyard contains twenty two acres, twelve of which are in bearing. Corowa is, as all the world knows, with the exception of a few North American Indians, and some benighted Laps in the north of Europe, a town of New South Wales, on the River Murray, forty miles below Albury, and two miles before reaching it stand Mr Edward Sanger's residence and vineyard. The proprietor was going to Corowa, having met with an accident, and referred me to his second in command, who would give me every information.
This vineyard is upwards of thirty acres in extent and is planted with Muscatel Shiraz (nine acres), Gouais (four acres), Verdeilho (three acres), Tokay (three acres), Baxter Sherry or Pedro Ximenes (three acres), Acarout (half acre). It has a calcareous soil and a southern aspect, and along the lower end more level ground run six acres of orchard, containing the healthiest and finest fruit trees I have yet seen in the colony, skillfully pruned, with open centres and radiating branches, curving upwards like frames for seats or nests. The markets for such fruit are Beechworth, Chiltern, and El Dorado.
Among the casks, which hold from three to 500 gallons, is an elliptical one, which has the advantage of containing a large quantity in small breadth, gaining in height what it gives in width. There are also two large well made vats, an ordinary boiler and steam boiler - steam being applied , at the bunghole by a curved half-inch iron pipe, fixed under the stand; this of course is for softening incrustations on the casks. All large casks are furnished with man-holes nine inches wide, for men to enter for cleaning purposes, the panel being lodged and screwed up afterwards. Here, also, is a copper still, complete, for converting lees into brandy, about fifty of the one making ton of the other.
The last, but not least, being the largest but one in the district, and the largest, with no exception in full hearing, is Mr David Reid's, at Moorwatha seven miles from Howlong. It was dark when I got here ; but Mr Reid, in the most hospitable manner invited me to stay the night and see the vineyard in the morning, promising to send the buggy with me into Howlong afterwards. After a pleasant evening spent "much to my advantage" as regards topographical and historical information, we retired and the next morning I took a walk round the vineyard before breakfast.
This property consists of 1,400 acres of fenced land, 200 acres of which are under com and grasses and 50 acres under vines in full bearing. Of these 20 acres are under Shiraz, 3 under Carbenet, 6 under Muscatel, 4 under Malbec, 9 under Verdeilho and 3 acres under Riesling. These vary in a remarkable manner as to their bearing qualities, as the following table will show, being the estimated yields of the several kinds mentioned, of course in the local soil, which is a calcareous loam of an average depth of 18 inches and mixed with iron stone: -
| Shiraz . | avg. 220 gall, to the a. 15 lbs. to the gall. 6 ft apart |
| Muscatel | avg 350 " " " ' |
| Verdeilho | avg 175 " " " " |
| Carbenet | avg 200 " " (a most valuable vine) " |
| Reisling.. | avg 210 " " " |
| Malbec | avg540 " " |
| 17054÷6 | = 284 gallons to the acre, average yield of those six varieties; and regarding some of their characteristics |
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