The vineyard is situated on the mid slopes of Mount Canobolas, 14 kilometers west of Orange just off the Cargo Road on Boree Lane. Its undulating profile sits between an altitude of 800 to 750 meters providing excellent growing and ripening conditions for the eight different grape varieties. Grapes from the 21.6 ha of planted vines are sold to wineries both locally and further afield.
After selling grapes to others for some years and seeing that the vineyard could produce good quality grapes, it was decided that we make some small quantities of wine with a view to showing what the vineyard was capable of producing as a finished product. The range has gradually grown from there and its success can be judged from the medals awarded (view Awards).
Having owned the Boree Lane Vineyard since 1999 the Clark Family have come to a time when serious decisions have had to be made about the future of the vineyard and our Cellar Door. It was with Climate Change, by now much more threatening, that the decision to sell to new owners who would take the vineyard into the future of this exciting Orange Region, was made. The vineyard was sold to Philip Shaw Wines in May 2021. That left the Cellar Door on the adjoining allotment. The final move has come with the sale of the Cellar Door and house to a lovely young family who will enjoy life among vineyards.
As we will continue to sell our existing wines, the background history and information is still relevant for those wanting to know more about Boree Lane Wines.
History
Bob and Carmel Clark began their foray into vineyards by helping plant the vines for Kalari at Cowra in 1995. This became much more serious with the planting of their own vineyard there in 1996. Aware of climate change issues and the allure of cool climate wines, the vineyard at Boree Lane was purchased in 1999 and managed for the sale of grapes to Southcorp and later different wineries.
It had been planted by Ian Britton on the Britton pastoral property ‘Woodstock’ in 1997-8 at the same time as the adjoining Vintec vineyard to the north, with a small area (0.75ha) dating to 1984, very early for the Orange region.
After some dry years and the fall in grape prices, a decision was made in 2008 to improve the management and health of the vineyard and to produce some wine. In 2003 Murray Smith, just across the Lane, had made a Cabernet Sauvignon from grapes from the small block planted in 1984 and the result was very encouraging. The 2008 vintage saw the first wines made under the Boree Lane Wines label.
Living in Sydney and commuting to and from the vineyard means that management had to be left in safe hands. This role was very capably filled first by Philippe Prudhomme, former owner of the Ku-ring-gai Vineyard and La Colline Wines, from 2009-2012, now retired. (see Viticulture & Winemaking). Vineyard Management was then taken on by Geoff Cook who continued right up to May 2021. He did an excellent job and was a pleasure to work with.
Our Label
Our original Boree Lane label is very ‘place based’ reflecting our aim to produce single vineyard wines that are the product of the local terroir (location, micro-climate, soil, etc) and will vary with the combination of factors that make each vintage distinct. The label photo shows the tree lined lane and this, together with the tapering letters describing the grape variety, draw the eye into the exciting contents within the bottle. The Boree Lane logo picks up the winding nature of the lane and its orange and brown colours relate to the soils and, of course, the Orange Region.
A second ‘simpler’ label has been produced for the more recent vintages.