Vintage time

February 20th, 2010

Andrew is locked away in the winery seven days a week busy with all that goes with vintage. Kicking off with our Grenache grapes for our award winning Rosé, the crusher is in full throttle and ferments have begun. Other ferments include some Beauty, Creation and Cabernet Sauvignon. The basket press will be fired up next week with parcels of Clos Otto expected to arrive soon.

February 12th

There has been a hive of activity at the winery this week! The 2008 Beast Shiraz has finally been bottled and will be ready for release this winter. The new French oak barrels for the 2010 vintage have arrived and our new winery is complete and ready to receive the first of our fruit early next week. On Tuesday we will crush our Grenache for the Rosé, followed by the first block of our premium Shiraz that is currently sitting at 14.5°Be.

January 20th

Andrew is still blending but this time it is the 2009 Stray Mongrel. We are anticipating the arrival of some brand new steel tanks for the upgrade of our winery...

January 15th

Andrew has finished his blending of the 2008 Clos Otto and 2008 Beast. They have now been put down in the winery to settle and an April release looks promising!

December 10th

After letting Andrew out of the winery to celebrate our cellar door refurbishment and renovation, he is back amongst the barrels blending his little heart out and creating like there's no tomorrow! Creating the 2007 Creation Shiraz that is... This is the first vintage of our single block Creation Shiraz, and it is a single block wine that Andrew feels best exemplifies the influence of our unique site conditions and vintage variation within the Shiraz varietal. This uniqueness is identified on the vine and those characteristics are highlighted through wine making practices.

That being said our 2008 Clos Otto as well as our 2008 Beast are about to be blended so for those awaiting the next release of Clos Otto we are getting close! Watch this space for more details...

The 2008 Shiraz and the 2008 Beauty were bottled in November and what little beauties they are. The 2008 vintages are sizing up to be magnificent coming from climatic conditions that encouraged excellent colour, flavour and tannin development. Both Shirazes are displaying great flavour, vibrancy and richness. The 2008 Shiraz is currently available at cellar door.

Winners...
Our 2007 Shiraz was awarded Gold at the 2009 Royal Agricultural Melbourne Wine Show in the Single Site Shiraz category. And if you haven't already heard, our 2009 Grenache Rosé won the Lynas Trophy for Best Rosé at the 2009 Barossa Show. Both delicious, deserving drops...