Into the freezer……

We are just over half way though winter, and I must say I’ll be glad to see the end of it. We’ve had decent rainfall, icy southerly winds and more than our fair share of below zero mornings and frosts! Not so good for us, but great for the vineyard. The low temperatures help the vines go into a deep dormancy, which aids their awaking in spring. If we continue to receive good rainfall, we will fill our dam and get the water table full in time for spring, which means we will start the 2016 vintage strongly!

I’m glad to say all the wines have been safely tucked away in the shed for some time now. Adopting a “hands off” approach to the winemaking can increase the risk of things not going to plan, but I’m happy to say all the wines are through malolactic fermentation and sulphured up. Simply put; the wines have been safely put to bed for the winter.

Winter in the winery is a time to take a breath, take stock and organise the rest of the year. We have some bottling of 2014 wines coming up and we are already thinking about blending our 2015 whites and rosè wines in spring. Spring also means swelling buds and green shoots, and as soon as that happens, it’s head down for the following 9 months until the new (2016) vintage wines are safely in the shed and “put to bed”.