RAINWATER AND TIGHT PANTS
During a two year stay in Saudi Arabia were Mom and Dad Ashmead 'forced by circumstances’ started making wine in the bathtub – in the secret of course. ‘You just don’t put Aussies dry,’ says Cameron Ashmead, who together with his brother Allister runs Elderton Wines, the company their parents started after returning to the Barossa Valley.

Judging from their city clothes and fast cars you would expect the brothers rather in the fast business world than in a dusty winery. Our first impression is correct: both came back to the vineyard, where they grew up, via a U-turn (Cameron lived a long time as a banker in London and Munich). Nowadays they are completely focused at wine which winemaker Richard Langford makes for them. Even better nowadays they strive to make the winery completely biodynamic. They have the first certificates to prove it, but ‘being green’ will never be on their label, because the brothers have no desire to be seen as tree huggers. In the coming years, they want all the vineyards that produce grapes for Elderton wines in-house to gain ultimate control over the use of pesticides and natural water.

I have already spoken a lot of people who are either worried about the drought either use minimized irrigation water, but I have never seen anyone consistently and massively recycle water. The Ashmeads do. In these tanks the rainwater that flows from the Elderton roofs, is filtered and used in the production areas (winemakers consume plenty of water, like to clean the tanks) and then in dry times distributed to the vineyards.

That makes the company only partly dependent on water of the river Murray. It will be just as well a significant investment, but the Ashmeads have their reasons. Cameron: ‘We have no idea how the water situation will be here in five years, so it should be covered.’  There is also an economic motive: this pays for itself quickly. And we feel responsible for this country and its future generations. ‘The latter demonstrates a prescient: Allis Shutters daughters are toddlers and Cameron expects his first child in a few weeks.
If it is not wine it is Australian football in their heads. In the evening I watch to the first game of the season with the brothers, their wives and some friends in Allis Shutters big house with tennis court atop a hill overlooking the Barossa Valley. I do not know the rules. The best thing I can report about it is the players wear remarkably short and tight pants. According to winemaker Jules, Cameron's wife, in the sixties the shorts were even shorter and tighter.

Opening hours
Monday / Friday from 8.30 to 17.00.
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 11.00 to 16.00.
Closed at Christmas and New Year.

This article was created on March 26, 2009 by Trouw Journalist Remke de Lange. For more wine articles: http://www.remkedelange.nl/. This article is copyrighted