AN IRISHMAN, a Scot and a German walk into a vineyard… No, it’s not the opening line to a joke, rather the start to another typical day of grape picking at David and Alison Blacket’s Riversands winery at St George.
Most horticultural enterprises in Australia rely heavily on travelling workers to get their valuable crops harvested and to market, and the Blacket family’s vineyard at St George in western Queensland is no exception.
Grape picking at Riversands is a truly multicultural affair, bringing together travellers from far flung destinations such as Ireland, Scotland, Germany and New Zealand as well as workers from distant corners of Australia.
Click on the image above to view a photo gallery of the harvest action at Riversands.
David Blacket said that without the help of travelling workers such as backpackers and grey nomads it would be very difficult to find the labour to harvest his vintage every year.
“There is just not the number of local workers around and, and some of them are too unreliable,” he said.
“It also keeps things fresh having people from all over the world here.
“We even get the odd romance from time to time so that keeps things interesting.”
With the picking season winding down after three months the now well drilled team of backpackers, young Australian travellers and grey nomads have formed not only a successful working partnership at Riversands but a strong bond of friendship and camaraderie as well.
The day Queensland Country Life visited it was a rush to get the black muscat grapes picked in time to meet the truck, after picking was delayed due to rain the previous day.
About two thirds of the Riversands vineyards produces table grapes, which are marketed cooperatively with neighbour Nick Bligh’s table grape operation under the brand of St George Fresh. About 60pc of their table grapes sell through the big supermarkets with the balance sold on the open market.
The St George Fresh cooperative became a member of the US based multi-national breeding company Sunworld International five years ago and now enjoys access to the newest and most advanced varieties available.
Mr Blacket, a former DPI agronomist, is particularly pleased with the first grapes of a new variety produced at Riversands this year called Midnight Beauty, a black seedless table grape that provides the benefits of a pre-Christmas harvest, high yields, good eating quality and presentation, a long shelf-life and favourable resistance to weather.
The vineyard’s annual production of wine grapes is trucked directly to Ballandean Estates near Stanthorpe where master winemakers Dylan Rhymer and Angelo Puglisi produce the label’s wide range of white, red and fortified wines.
Half of Riversands’ annual wine sales occur through its own cellar door at the St George vineyard, while the balance is sold through external retail outlets, a growing mail order trade and the winery’s travelling shop front which visits more than 30 country shows and music festivals around Queensland each year.
The Blackets have poured considerable efforts into their marketing activities to grow the Riversands operation since taking ownership 15 years ago and have been successful in carving out a niche market for their wine away from the large retail chains.
Mr Blacket said the biggest growth in recent years had come through the e-commerce trade and through the winery’s moves to value-add its wine through imaginative packaging, such as the popular Barnaby Joyce boots range.
“We have been able to buffet ourselves by creating a market outside the big retailers and focusing on the niche end of the market,” Mr Blacket said.
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