Grape expectations exceeded

Slave Karanfilovski with his bumper crop of grapes. Picture: Shawn Smits.

There must be something special in the soil at Sunshine West this summer.

Slave Karanfilovski, a former mechanic turned hobby farmer, has produced a bunch of grapes weighing an almost vine-breaking four kilograms.

Slave, who arrived in Melbourne from Macedonia in 1971, says this year’s harvest has produced the heaviest bunches since he put down his first vines in the mid ’80s at his Sunshine West property.

“All the bunches are at least three kilos,” he says proudly. “It’s just a hobby – I grow enough for the family or I give them to my pensioner club.”