Tuesday 3 February 2015

The earliest start to our vintage in our 26 year history - bring it on!

Today vintage kicked off bright & early (actually, not so much ‘bright’ as ‘pitch black’ but that doesn’t have the same ring to it does it?) with a 4am harvesting of Marsanne from our Stonewell block. The winery guys - Mark, Peter & Alex had a ‘sleep-in’, coming in at 6am to begin the process of crushing, pressing, pumping & fermenting the grapes into wine.

The tradition of morning coffee continues throughout vintage with the whole team coming together to share caffeine & the Advertiser quiz…the remaining slices of Jo’s delicious cake from yesterday are demolished by the hard-working & ever-hungry winemaking team.

And just to keep us on our toes we've decided to push up the release of the 2013 Butchers Block Red (the 2012 has sold out already!). This means tasting notes need to be written, Cellar Door sheets updated, media kits created, website updated, stock moved, new bottle shots & release notifications sent out - better get to it now!

Wednesday 4 February 2015

Dolcetto - destined for our iconic Rosé - is in today, harvested from one of the few Barossa Valley plantings of this varietal at Sandy Hollow.

Kate brings a smile to the faces of the team with a dozen chocolate & red velvet cupcakes for morning tea.

The 2013 Butchers Block Red is officially released! (yep, we certainly don't muck around here!)

Thursday 5 February 2015

Rosé and whites typically dominate the beginnings of vintage as earlier picking enhances the fresh style. Today it’s Grenache for Rosé off the vine & into the winery.

Construction continues on our new kitchen addition, the original slate floor is being sealed - making it safe AND pretty!

Friday 6 February 2015

Cleaning day - oh how the winery guys love a day like today! Although it does mean that the traditional Friday Pub-Lunch at the Clubhouse can still go ahead.

We get gyprock walls and a ceiling in our new kitchen today - things are looking good for its first use in March!

Morning tea today? Dark chocolate, ginger, pistachio truffles from Emily. Gosh we're good to these guys (although probably not our waistlines - oh well!)

Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 February 2015

If the winemaker is in the building on a weekend it must be vintage! Pump-overs (pumping the wine from the bottom of the tank over the cap of floating skins & seeds) still have to happen throughout the ferment - including weekends.

Webber the wine-dog gets to play with Charlie-weekend-wine-dog to the delight of our Cellar Door customers!

Our Chief, Christie, is off to the UK now for her annual trade visits. Have fun playing in the snow Christie while we swelter here at home!

Monday 9 February 2015

The first grapes from our home block on Bethany Road are harvested today with Viognier heading for the crusher.

Monday means ## morningteabyjo and she certainly doesn’t disappoint! A delicious chocolate, mint creation soothes the stress of a rapid-fire vintage. The warm weather (mid - high 30ºs since the weekend) is speeding things up & it looks like the winery will be packed to the rafters very shortly. Mark investigates hiring portable tanks to cope with the extra load.

…Contrary to the beliefs of the winery crew the work in the office doesn’t slow down - it’s all hands on deck to prepare for the up-coming Secret Garden Party in 5 weeks time. With the speed of ripening & early start we’re now wondering if there’ll actually be anything happening in the winery to show people during the scheduled tours on the day… Only time will tell!

...Until next Monday - Cheers!

-Emily Hay