Growing Pedro Ximenez in the Swan Valley
Pedro Ximenez grow readily in the Swan Valley in Perth’s Western Australia. Pedro Ximenez is a white wine grape best known for the sweet sherries of Spain. Pedro Ximenez comes to the fore as a fortified wine either as a Sherry style, or as a fortified single-variety wine known as Pedro Ximenez (PX).
Here in the Swan Valley we make the great sweet dessert wines of the world. Once called sherry in Australia, and now called by its varietal name Pedro Ximenez, as the Europeans own the name Sherry.
Planting
We have 300 Pedro Ximenez vines planted in our organic vineyard, situated at the top of the Swan Valley, 29 km from Perth, in Western Australia. Harris Organic Wines is the only organic vineyard and winery in Perth with 3 ha of land.
The vines cover an area of 20,000 square metres. The PX was planted in 2002 as part of our efforts to continue making our great fortified and preservative free dessert wines. However the clone of our Pedro Ximénez is unknown and here they are grown on their own roots and do well.
The vines are planted with 2.1 m spacing. The rows are 3.0m apart. The vines are trained to the wire at 900mm high, and are rod pruned to 5 or 6 buds per rod. The vines are trained on VSP trellis to 1.8m above the ground.
During spring the vines are sprayed with wettable sulphur after rain and bordeaux mixture before any rain events.
The vines are continually maintained with summer pruning. After fruit set the vines are leaf plucked on the south side so that fruit thinning can be performed at veraison.
To reach the highest sugar levels the un-irrigated vines are only allowed to have one bunch of fruit per shoot. This leaves 6-8 bunches per vine and approximately two kilogrammes per vine at 25 Be’.
Site characteristics
Pedro Ximenez is grown at an elevation of just 19m above sea level. Situated 30km from the Indian Ocean, the vineyard is flat, as is the surrounding Swan Valley land. The Pedro Ximenez vines are planted east-west direction in soil that comprises a duplex sandy loam over clay. In January, the site experiences a mean maximum temperature of 33.2°C and a mean minimum temperature of 17°C. Further, the average annual rainfall over the last 10 years has been 650mm dominated by 140mm averages for June and July. The site doesn’t experience frosts while winds are predominantly south-west in the afternoon, with some easterly gales in spring and autumn.
Trellising and canopy management
The row and vine spacing of the Pedro Ximénez is 3m x 2.1, respectively, and is trellised to a five-wire Vertical Shoot Position (VSP). Sometimes we practise leaf plucking on the south side of the vines, trimming around Christmas time, shoot thinning and shoot-positioning when putting the wires up in November and bunch thinning to carry the fruit through to 25 Baume.
Irrigation and soil management
The Pedro Ximenez vines are unirrigated. Between rows, we grow lupins, vetch and a mixture of wild radish, soursobs and capeweed to increase soil carbon and nitrogen. Strip digging and ploughing the vine rows in spring produces a dry earth mulch. This helps to conserve soil moisture and help manage weed growth. Wood chip compost is spread out along the vine inter-rows to act as a fertiliser in autumn.
Pest and disease management
Pedro Ximenez is more susceptible to downy mildew than the other varieties grown here. Furthermore to reduce its susceptibility, we prune the vines late in the season so that budburst is up to two weeks later than the other varieties. Budburst this year occurred on 10 October.
Pruning
We spur-pruned the Pedro Ximénez to two-bud spurs as recommended by the Handbook of Horticulture and Viticulture of Western Australia. This book was first published by Adrien Despiessis in 1895. Due to my 1921 second edition of the handbook by the Western Australian Department of Agriculture started to fall apart, I undertook the task of re-printing this wonderful book on behalf of others as well as myself in 2007. We have the intent of producing a small amount of PX fruit at 25Be for a PX sherry liqueur. After 5 years of spur pruning I have changed the pruning method to cane pruning. This reduces the amount of time required for hand thinning of the shoots during Spring.
Future methods of management
Changing from a four-wire to a five-wire trellis helped reduce hedging time, and increase the verticality of the shoots and changing from spurs to canes, to reduce shoot thinning hand work.
Harvesting
At veraison all excess fruit is removed leaving only one bunch per shoot, i.e., about 12 bunches per vine. A typical analysis of our Pedro Ximénez at harvest: Sugar (Baumé) 25, Acidity (TA) very low with a pH of about 4.0.
We harvest less than a tonne of Pedro Ximénez per year at this sugar level.
Average phenological timing:
Budburst early October
Flowering November
Fruit set December
Veraison late January
Harvest usually about 1st April, sometimes can stretch out to May
Winemaking
Pedro Ximénez fermentation is carried out on its skins for a few degrees Baume’ before pressing. The fermented juice is returned to tank, prior to fortification. Once fortified with certified organic neutral brandy spirit it is racked and allowed to settle for a few weeks before racking to barriques. Ours is an organic fortified version, fortified with certified organic brandy from the only organic distillery in Australia. We mature our PX for many years in our underground cellar. The Pedro Ximénez is packaged in 375ml bottles.
Biggest challenge in producing Pedro Ximenez
None really, it’s a matter of learning more about the variety and the terrior as the vines become more mature. Although it does require a lot of hand work, particularly fruit thinning to improve flavour and ripeness.
Advice to other growers
For best results, the more hand work the better. Love your vineyard and the vines will perform for you.
