The story of the 2012 season begins to be written

The vines are exiting their winter dormancy and we are joining them at the beginning of a new season’s journey. The story of the 2012 season begins to be written.

The pruning was successfully completed in good time and the new canes wrapped down well before any sign of bud swell. Despite the difficulties of last season’s challenging humid conditions the vines had good mature wood to use for this season’s canes and we expect a consistent budburst. We have aerated the vineyard several times to open up the soil for air and moisture penetration and to alleviate the problem of compaction from using the tractor on saturated soils. This method creates punctures about 120mm deep in the mid row, about 250mm from the base of the vine, and three passes gives a very good coverage. Some superficial roots are cut and the structure of the soil is improved.

The 2011 vintage wines remain on heavy yeast lees in barrel and are at varying stages in regard to the completion of malo-lactic. The wines are looking very good and have excellent intensity and balance. It is, of course, early days for the 2011s but it is at least a very successful vintage which exhibits excellent fruit purity, intensity and balance. We must wait until the end of Spring and for the malos to be completed. The best indication will come post racking when the wines are taken off lees from barrel and returned to the cleaned barrels as they always look freshened up and more complete.

We are now releasing the last of the 2010s. The wines are showing quite well but are clearly very young and un-evolved. I expect the release to sell out rather quickly and apologise if we are unable to fulfill all orders satisfactorily. The reality is we have not increased our production while we have seen a large increase in our customer base.

Thank you for using our website and your interest in our wines.