New Bottlings

After a winter that gifted us 14 frosts, plenty of rain and some biting, blustery weather we have broken through into an early Spring break. Whilst the drenching of warmth and the invitation to the birds to bring us musical cheer is lovely the less pleasing aspect is the vines’ buds pushing early and possibly exposing their new flush to damaging springtime frosts. We will see.

There is rather a lot of news to do with new bottlings, the evolution of the 2013s in barrel as well as the important work that has begun on preparing four new vineyard sites for planting over the next four years. More about these new vineyards in the next newsletter finalising the 2012 vintage release. Also, though perhaps more exciting for us that work here rather than those buying the wine and interested in less mundane things, we have been doing some much needed works at the winery and sheds. These projects on top of the normal vineyard and winery work are certainly demanding however it’s always very exciting seeing long planned projects begin and evolve.

The 2013 wines are still on yeast lees and are evolving well. Like the previous two harvests 2013 was quite reduced from the ‘normal’ crop level but the pleasing aspect of the vintage is the very good depth of flavour and balance the wines show in barrel. The 2012 wines continue to evolve slowly in bottle and as we always council, two years post bottling sees the wines relax and begin to open up and begin to really show well. Some recent tastings and dinners have seen the 2005 and 2006 wines drinking superbly and the 2008 and 2009s just beginning to show their beauty.

We shall send out the final offer for the 2012s in early October.