September 5, 2007

To whom it may concern

Yarraman Estate is a winery and vineyard located in the Upper Hunter Valley. The vineyard covers over 250acres of vines ranging from 10 to 50 years old.

The vineyard's water supply comes from two sources being a bore and the Wollomi Creek. The water ranges in salinity from 500ppm to 4000ppm. Vines normally don't do well in water with salinity over 350ppm. In addition, because of the high mineral content the irrigations pipes and drippers suffer from scaling. This problem requires monthly de-scaling via chemical flushing during the growing season. In addition the drippers because of scaling need to be unblocked. Clearing blocked drippers is a laborious task with no easy way to rectify except for manual labour. This is a costly and un-productive job.

In looking at better processes to reduce/remove both the salinity and scaling issue, we met with representatives from Hydrosmart International Pty Ltd. Through a number of trials we were convinced that the Hydrosmart units were an economical alternative to other technologies, environmentally friendly and low maintenance.

We now have installed a number of Hydrosmart units directly after the water has passed through the pump house. This means the water is being treated just prior to going through the irrigation pipes. The resulting change has justified the cost many times over.

It has been 2 years since installation of Hydrosmart. The only time we have not used Hydrosmart was due to the drought when our "never empty" dam became empty.

The result has been to see the vines produce good fruit despite the high level of salinity within our water. In addition the staff at the winery have not had to worry about scaling.

Prior to work on this years crop we have reviewed the use of Hydrosmart and are about to apply Hydrosmart prior to the water going through the pump house to prevent corrosion within the metal pipes that feed each pump. In addition, we are now looking at using Hydrosmart within the winery for wash down within the tanks.

A low fuss product with great results. Well worth the investment.

Thanks

Graham Edney