A spring of sorts is emerging after a bitterly cold and wet winter. A rather nostalgic three months it has been. If a little confronting, not unwelcome. At this time of year we hold high hopes. Vines pruned and prepared. Old canes mulched back into the soil, new canes layered along the wire ready to shoot their new foliage, ready to set their crop for a harvest seven months away. The journey towards Vintage 2013 begins.

Recently Bindi was involved in tastings in Brisbane and Sydney with nine other family vineyard/winery operations, each having more than twenty vintages released. Small vineyards, hands-on wineries, operators working the same terroir into their third, fourth or fifth decades. Several sites were even established over 150 years ago. It was a lot of fun tasting wines going back to the ‘80s. There exist a lot of opportunities in the wine world today. There’s more diversity than ever before for maker, seller and consumer. These tastings and conversations, of families discussing their land, their decades of learning and evolving in the winery, of relationships with customers enjoying the wines for twenty plus years were incredibly rewarding. We were left with the thought ‘we should do it more often!’. So, Melbourne will be next then we’ll revisit it all again in a couple more years.

We also have two upcoming Bindi events which may be of interest. Bistro Vue in Melbourne will host a dinner on 16 October 2012 featuring Bindi sparkling (a blend of 1993 to 2000 with ten years on lees) and multiple vintages of the Original Vineyard Pinot Noir. Please contact Bistro Vue directly on (03) 9691 3838. And on 23 November 2012 The Dispensary Enoteca in Bendigo will host a 5 course degustation matched with Bindi wines. Please contact them directly on (03) 5444 5885.