Pierro | Margaret River

The Pierro vineyard is set in 65 acres of beautiful undulating bushland. Willyabrup Brook, runs through the property and forms the dam which provides irrigation to the vines. The first grapes were planted in 1980, the same year as the cellars were built. Winemaker Dr. Michael Peterkin graduated in Medicine from the University of Western Australia in 1972. He then attended Roseworthy Agricultural College in 1976 and 1977 and gained a degree in grape growing and wine making. Whilst establishing Pierro vineyards he acted as consultant winemaker to a number of premium wineries in the Margaret River and Lower Great Southern districts.

Mike was anything but conventional when it came to establishing Pierro, in fact, in many areas of the vineyard he went completely against the customary methodology. Unlike a number of other vineyards in the region, he planted north-south orientated vine rows, which he judged would receive up to 20% more sunlight. He also introduced vines with half the normal width between the rows and two-thirds the spacing. This was to make the vines more competitive, balance their fruit yield and promote flavour intensity. Pierro was the original high-density vineyard planting in Margaret River and also one of the first in Australia. Vine density ranges from 4,000 to 5,500 vines per hectare, compared to a conventional Australian vineyard of 1,900 per hectare.

The winemaking philosophy has always been to combine the traditional handmade techniques of the Old World with the modern technology of the New World. Mike has owned the Fire Gully vineyard down the road from Pierro since 1988 with the wines made at Pierro but sold under a separate label.