The Rosemount Staff Vege Garden

Last week I had the very great pleasure of a tour of the Rosemount winery on Ingoldby Road, right here in McLaren Flat. Although Rosemount has its cellar door in McLaren Vale, the bulk of their production occurs here in the Flat.

Ross Lyman invited me to visit as he had received a copy of the Gazette and is keen to become a part of our community initiative.

The tour was rather exciting for me as the majority of my wine knowledge comes directly out of the bottle rather than from the production side! As we wandered around, suitably attired with hard hats and glowing yellow vests, the sheer history of the site had me enthralled.

Concrete fermenting vats competed for space with huge shiny steel ones. And there were so many reminders of history in amongst the industrial technology that I hardly knew where to look next.

It is apparent that Rosemount employs a large component of local staff and the numbers increase by 100% at vintage. This places them in a prime position to influence and assist our local community.

A staff driven initiative that is enjoying a comeback at the moment is the vegetable patch.  This was started in response to staff wanting to learn more about where their food comes from and how it is produced. It has gone through a growth period,  been attacked by rabbits, re-irrigated and is now picking up again with staff adopting patches to grow their own choice of food.

I look forward to some more interaction with Rosemount and their community support will be gratefully received.