AT LAST....

On a deserted road to nowhere in particular, I found what we have all been looking for.......

 It wasn't quite what I expected but life is mysterious. After all, even a starving camel is bigger than a horse.

FERMENTATION

The Pinot Noir that was picked last Friday has just commenced fermenting. It's been cooler than usual so the ferments haven't been too vigorous--we often have to cool them down a little so they don't get out of control but so far, that hasn't been necessary this year. 
Here's a picture of the grapes in the fermenter immediately after crushing on Friday:

It looks pretty messy, doesn't it? It's really just a mass of grape skins, seeds, pulp and juice. There's no real aroma and while it tastes sweet with all the natural grape sugar, it certainly doesn't taste at all like wine. The sugar level here is 12.7 Baume or 23 Brix (that's slightly more than 230 g/L of sugar, or 23%. That's why grapes make such good wine--they have more sugar than any other fruit).
After a few days, when fermentation begins, the carbon dioxide produced gets caught up in the grape skins and lifts them up to form what is known as the "cap". This cap of skins effectively sits on top of the juice so we have two distinct layers.
Here's a picture of the cap, taken today from the same position as the photo above:

I hope you can see a difference. The task now is to make sure we mix the two layers to extract the colour and flavour from the skins. We do this twice a day, sometimes by pumping over (taking fermenting juice from the bottom of the vat and circulating it over the cap) as in the picture below or by plunging the cap (breaking it up and pushing it down into the juice) with a large paddle. That's hard work!

HARVEST

The grapes are finally just about ready and the ominous weather forecast for next week had us calling our picking crew and polishing the rust off our own secateurs.
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc in two days--could we do it?

Well, we gave it a good shot.
The grapes were in very good condition, although there were some patches of Pinot Noir that the birds had ravaged. They like to peck the grapes and suck out some juice, leaving the punctured berry behind which opens the way for mould, vinegar flies and other undesirable things.
Here's a bucket of Sauvignon Blanc, waiting to be picked up:

As you can see, beautiful clean fruit, ready for the trip to the winery:

 It's a challenging and interesting season. The cool, humid weather has allowed the grapes to retain high natural acidity. This is great because it means we don't have to add any and I have no doubt that natural acidity tastes better (and "softer") than added acid. I can't explain why this may be so but it is in keeping with our desire to interfere as little as possible in the winemaking process. As we are fond of saying, we like to let the grapes do the talking....

A BEAUTIFUL MORNING IN THE YARRA VALLEY

Up early and out to sample in the vineyard, I was taken aback (again) by the beauty of the scene. 
On a more practical note, my purpose was to assess the flavour development in the early-ripening varieties, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. The mild weather this year has delayed ripening by at least three weeks compared to last year but finally the fruit is nearly ready. 
In the Chardonnay we can see the citrus "lemonade" fruit characters we seek. The MV6 clone Pinot Noir is very expressive with a delightful musky overtone and the Sauvignon Blanc is just starting to show all the gooseberry and passionfruit flavour that we liked so much in the 2010.
Fume Blanc.
We'll give these blocks one more week of ripening and commence picking on Monday 21 March. To put that into perspective, by this time last year we had harvested all blocks except for the young vine Cabernet Sauvignon.
One of the hazards of wandering down the vine rows is being entangled in spider webs. These webs, usually spun by St Andrews Cross spiders, can be quite large and often very sticky. The spiders are harmless (or so I have been told) and they do catch plenty of insects.

 

 With gaze focused on the grapes, it is easy to get caught up in these wonderfully-constructed webs. Not a bad price to pay though for such tranquility and beauty.