Woodlands Brook

The tale of how the Woodlands Brook vineyard came into the Woodlands stable is an interesting one! It all began when Rob, one of winemaker Stuart Watson’s friends, gave him a Merlot Malbec blend to try. Rob had made the wine in his garage, so our expectations were not high!

Our family loved the wine - almost black in colour, with excellent ripe fruit characters and good acid balance. Stuart asked Rob where the fruit had come from, and was told that it was produced from a vineyard located 2km noth east from Woodlands.

When we investigated this vineyard we found that it and the surrounding land was for sale. The vineyard comprised 2.5 hectares of Merlot, 1 hectare of Malbec, 1 hectare of Cabernet Franc and half a hectare of Petit Verdot. Planted in 1999 and 2000, the rows are a mere 2 metres from each other, providing a vine density roughly double that of the Woodlands vineyard. The soils are Wilyabrup Class 1 – with a clay loam top soil, a bed of gravel and then a bed of white clay. The existing vineyard is on a very gentle west facing slope, surrounded by south facing pastoral land.

We found this prospect to be very exciting- 9 year old dry grown vineyard 2km from home planted only with varieties that Woodlands grows, with the potential to plant more Cabernet Sauvignon on south facing slopes!

So after much deliberation we signed up to purchase the land.


The new vineyard is entitled "Woodlands Brook" after the water course that runs through it.

Woodlands Brook fruit now makes up a significant part of our Cabernet Merlot blend.

We also produce a blend entitled "Emily" from Woodlands Brook which we feel best reflects the nature of this site. Each year the "Emily" blend may vary, but it is made predominately from Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec. "Emily" also includes Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot.