DOWN ON THE FARM...

Comment is not required. Except to say that it was just about a perfect day.

RIPENING TIMES

With six different varieties in our small vineyard, we pay close attention to ripening patterns so that we can harvest the grapes at exactly the right time. Luckily, we are assisted by the natural growth patterns of the varieties. I took these photos today to illustrate how great the difference can be. The first is Pinot Noir--also the first red variety to ripen. The berries are beginning to fill out and form tight bunches, as you can see. We expect harvest to be in late February or perhaps early March if the weather is cool.

It makes sense that this variety has found its true home in Burgundy. In such a northely region, any red grapes that did not ripen early would be unlikely to ripen at all.
By contrast, Cabernet Franc is a much later ripener. Just look at the bunches below and compare the development to the Pinot Noir above. This Cabernet Franc will be picked at least three weeks later--maybe even in April.

 
 Cabernet Sauvignon is the last variety to be picked. That will certainly be in April unless the weather is very hot and dry over summer.

NO VINES, NO WINES, JUST NATURE

Sometimes good things happen that have nothing to do with wine--hard to believe, but it's true--and here is one of them. Can you see what I am talking about?

Taken in my back garden on the weekend--I was having a coffee when I noticed something in the magnolia tree. Closer inspection revealed a large tawny frogmouth. We haven't seen these birds for quite a few years and perhaps the drought had some impact on their numbers. It's great to see them returning.
Just in case you couldn't make it out well enough...

 And here is the scary one, taken without the red-eye filter....

 

THE GROWING SEASON

The soil has finally warmed, there is plenty of moisture available and the vines are really moving. Here's a shot taken this week--compare to the earlier blog entry to see how much growth has occurred in just a few weeks.

Flowering is a rather unobtrusive affair in grape vines. There are no showy blooms, no flashes of colour. If you wander through a vineyard at flowering time, you will notice a faint but pleasant aroma but unless you look closely you may miss the flowers altogether.
The small white flowers quickly develop into berries as the photo below shows. The brown cap 
soon falls away and the berries begin to grow.

SAUSAGE SIZZLE

It was a mild, calm spring day for the latest sausage sizzle at Squitchy Lane last weekend.

The favourite on the day was the blackeye beef, a genuine artisan creation--coarse ground beef with subtle hints of bacon, prunes and herbs. Of course, the duck sausage with a glass or two of Pinot Noir wasn't bad either.
Very enjoyable day--here is a photo gallery taken early by Michelle, one of our cellar door team.

We hope to have another in March next year. See you there.

 

GOURMET SAUSAGE SIZZLE

We have been deep in discussions with our favourite butchers to get the best selection possible for our gourmet sausage sizzle on Saturday November 10. 
You can find full details on our website, www.squitchylane.com.au but in the meantime, here's the menu with my recommended wine matchings:

HONEY MUSTARD CHICKEN with 2010 CHARDONNAY

DUCK and HOISIN SAUCE with 2010 PINOT NOIR

PORK, APPLE and SAGE with 2011 FUME BLANC

BLACKEYED BEEF (beef with bacon, prune and rosemary) with 2009 RED SQUARE

BEEF and THYME with 2010 CABERNET SAUVIGNON

We will be cooking from noon till 4 pm or until the sausages run out (those who came to our last event will know that the duck sauasages were gone pretty early in the day. I think the blackeyed beef could do the same this time--it's a great match with the Red Square which is starting to really open up after a few years in the bottle).

SPRINGTIME

Another season starts........

Here is a Pinot Noir vine, growing quickly and without restraint. We need to control that growth, especially those suckers that are sprouting from the trunk. Left alone, they will flourish and rob the vine of vigour as well as creating a disease hazard. So we take them off, along with some of the abundant growth in the middle of the vine, where the two arms branch out (this is known as the crown). If it is is left to grow freely, we will have a large, impenetrable mass of leaves and fruit that can trap moisture and really cause us problems. Here's what I did...

More will be needed but I hope that gives you the idea. The weather is still cool, especially in the morning, but the vines are looking in great condition. Fruitfulness is high--there are plenty of potential bunches forming--so we will be vigilant in controlling bunch numbers. The last few seasons have given us a pretty good idea of just how many bunches per vine we need to give us the quality we seek. It's not many.
Here's a panorama looking towards the south-east....

MORE GUMBOOTS

Sunday was another gumboot day in the Yarra Valley. More a fashion accessory than a practical requirement (since we haven't had any rain for a few days), they are nevertheless perfectly suited to the winter environment here.
Especially if they are in polka-dot.

 

GUMBOOTS, WINTER SUNSHINE AND LIVING LARGE

What a great day for the end of the Yarra Valley Gumboot festival. Enough sun to warm the frozen bones of winter and enough good people to enjoy the Squitchy Lane hospitality:

We cooked up some beef and Cabernet sausages, drank some wines and just enjoyed the day. As did the happy group pictured above and here:

The designated driver (solitary male) looks rather glum because he was, well, it's pretty obvious really. His glamorous companions did their best to cheer him up.
People just kept coming. Here's a group who called themselves a netball team but we think they were more likely to be simply escaping the husbands and boyfriends for some serious girl time:

 Wines looking good today were the 2010 Chardonnay and the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon--both with a good future in front of them.

SAUSAGES AND GUMBOOTS

The Yarra Valley Festival of the Gumboot draws to a close on the weekend of 21/22 July. We'll be marking the occasion by cooking some sausages and drinking some 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon.
The barbeque will be on between 12 and 3 pm so come along for a free sausage. If you are wearing gumboots, so much the better.
I should add that the sausages were made by a local butcher using prime beef and our Cabernet. They taste even better than you might expect.
See you there. If you mention that you read about this barbeque on this blog, I may even be tempted to open a special bottle in your honour.
 

A DIFFERENT VIEWPOINT

While at the cellar door yesterday, I took a video to show the other side of the vineyard property. It's such a beautiful environment, it's no wonder we try our hardest to make beautiful wines to match--we sometimes get close but a video of a wine bottle isn't very exciting.
Here it is, with apologies for any motion sickness incurred during viewing:

I also took a more normal one of the vineyard in the cool winter light

COOL CLIMATE WINE SHOW

I have just returned from judging at the Cool Climate Wine Show on the Mornington Peninsula. It's a great show with a fascinating range of entries from all over the world. All entries must conform to the entry requirements based on vineyard temperature and/or altitude--so entries come from Tasmania, New Zealand, Mornington Peninsula, Geelong, Yarra Valley, Gippsland and a few other cool to cold places that may not even be regarded as recognised wine regions. For the first time, there were even a few Burgundies mixed amongst the Australian and New Zealand Pinot Noirs.

 Here's the line-up of wines for the trophy awards. To get to this point, twelve judges had sipped and spat their way through about seven hundred wines. What you see in this picture is the best of the best--three rieslings, four chardonnays, three pinot gris, two gewurztraminers, a sauvignon blanc, two sparkling, four pinot noir, three shiraz and a cabernet. What a privilege to taste these wines. 
The group of pinot noirs was extraordinary and reminded me of how much progress we have made with this variety. When I first started judging in wine shows twenty years ago, the pinot noir classes were uniformly ordinary. Some of the wines were downright bizarre. That situation has completely changed--the four wines here would challenge any wines from anywhere in the world, Burgundy included.
You may not believe me when I say that judging wine is hard work. Sometimes, it's exhausting, mentally draining and physically difficult. Think about tasting forty young chardonnays at 8.30 am!

IT'S GETTING COLD AT COLDSTREAM

Truth is, it's often cold at Coldstream. Even in summer and certainly in autumn, winter and spring.
That's the way we like it. 
But don't get the wrong impression--we have one of the warmest vineyard sites in the Yarra, due to the north-easterly aspect and relative shelter from winds. This is one of the reasons our grapes have ripe flavours at reasonably low sugar levels. It's also the reason why our Sauvignon Blanc avoids the lawn clipping, cat pee characters so prevalent in other wines.
Pruning has just commenced in Chardonnay. It's a long, cold few months ahead for our vineyard team.

NEW RELEASES

Last night, Mike Fitzpatrick hosted our new release tasting at his Collins St office. It was a warm autumn evening, the guests enjoyed the wines and I hope that Squitchy Lane gained a few new friends

We tasted the 2011 Fume Blanc, the 2010 Chardonnay and the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon. We've yet to meet someone who doesn't like the Fume and I think it was the most popular wine on the night.

 The Chardonnay, while still quite youthful, showed its promise. I feel it will continue to improve in the bottle and will start to really shine in six to twelve months time. It's one for the cellar.

 I have written about the Cabernet before (check the older blogs). Last night, it surprised a few people who perhaps had a rather narrow view of what Yarra Valley Cabernet can be and also surprised a few people who know a lot about wine but weren't familiar with Squitchy Lane and its wonderful vineyard resource. That's why we enjoy putting on these tastings. But take my advice and stock up on this Cabernet because we didn't make a lot and the word is spreading. I think it will be a while before we see a wine of this quality again. 

 If you would like to join us in our next tasting, keep an eye on the website, www.squitchylane.com.au, and this blog. You could also join our wine club and/or our mailing list--see the website for details.

SAUSAGES and WINE

Well, our first gourmet sausage and wine afternoon has been and gone. It was a great day...

and everyone enjoyed the food and wine. The duck and hoisin sauce sausages accompanied by our Squitchy Lane 2010 Pinot Noir was the most popular choice but all the different suasages had their supporters.
The souvlaki lamb was a genuinely meaty sausage with great flavour and depth. Pure meat with some spicy flavourings, almost no fat and just a real mouthful of enjoyment. The 2009 Red Square blend with its spicy aromatics was a good complement.
The pork, apple and sage was a real surprise to me. Michelle had been saying how good they were but I wasn't prepared for the wonderful texture and, once again, the real meatiness of the thing. 
The beef and cabernet sausage was the real deal. Meat and red wine, no unnecessary additives, simple and elegant. The low fat content meant that careful cooking was needed but the butcher tipped us off and we had no trouble.

These sausages were so far ahead of your standard sausage sizzle offering that it seems a shame to call them sausages. They were a tribute to the art of good charcuterie.

I think we will make this event a regular feature on the cellar door calendar. The butchers loved making these sausages for us and we had a great time talking with our customers and friends on the day. 
Autumn in the vineyard is a wonderful time and the weather, while not truly sunny, wasn't wet or cold. Our friend below enjoyed the day too.

SAUSAGE TASTING

Don't forget the gourmet sausage barbeque on Saturday 28 April. The cellar door team will be  cooking a range of tasty sausages to accompany our wines.
Pictured above is the trial run of duck and hoisin sauce sausage to pair with the 2010 Pinot Noir. It was a pretty good combination.

The address is Medhurst Road, Gruyere, the time is from 12 noon until 4 pm. All welcome.

See you there.

AUTUMN and the VINTAGE REVIEW

Harvest is complete and it's now possible to give some broad comments on quality and style. But first, the vineyard is looking in great condition at the moment, especially the trees as the vines have yet to fully reveal their autumn colourings.

 The Cabernet Sauvignon remains on skins as we are aiming for a true Bordeaux style wine. It looks like we will press next week which will mean a maceration time of over three weeks. The tannins are long and sustained at the moment and I want them to gain just a little more depth. The overall quality is as good as I have ever seen from the vineyard. The result will be similar to the current release, 2010, in style.
The Pinot Noir is rather special. It's unusually deep in colour but vibrantly fruity also (sometimes too much colour indicates over-enthusiastic cap management during fermentation or even some vineyard issues). Famous last words but it could well be the best we have made yet.
The Merlot and Cabernet Franc are similar in style--good colour and generous fruit profiles without extraction. They are classic Yarra wines.

 It's a red vintage but let's not forget the whites....the Fume Blanc is resting in barrel and needs some time to reveal itself. It won't be quite as rich as the 2010 but will have more in common with the 2011. The Chardonnay is in two parcels at the moment...the P58 clone is going through malo-lactic fermentation to add richness while the Dijon clone portion is resting on lees with occasional stirring. The blend will be a long-lived wine that needs a few years in the bottle.
All in all, it's been a great year for us. 

2010 CABERNET SAUVIGNON

The 2010 Squitchy Lane Cabernet Sauvignon is now available, at cellar door and in restaurants and bottle shops in Melbourne. It will soon be available in Sydney also.
As you are probably aware, we didn't release a straight Cabernet from the 2009 vintage, so this is the first since the highly succesful 2008. There is some good news--we think it's pretty good--and some bad news--there isn't much of it. The barrel selection process for this wine is ruthless and unforgiving. If a barrel isn't of the highest quality, it doesn't make the cut. Such barrels are blended into our Red Square wine where they add some backbone and authority to the Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
Now, normally at this point I would write a detailed tasting note for this Cabernet. However, this time I would like to ignore that traditional approach and focus instead on a particular feature that makes this wine what it is (the tasting notes can be found on our website if you are interested).
The striking feature of this wine is its sheer drinkability. It's just about the most enjoyable wine I can recall drinking--so much so that I am not inclined to evaluate this wine in the normal terms when I drink it but rather just take a purely sensorial delight in its flavour.
I can best explain what I am driving at in this way--you open a bottle as you are cooking dinner, thinking you will have a glass and then enjoy the remainder at the table as you eat. Unfortunately, when it comes time to sit down, you find the bottle is nearly empty. The wine is so damn tasty that you haven't noticed how much you have drunk.
My wife and I have fallen for this trap a few times so now I delay opening the bottle.
This wine has harmony, balance, lightness of touch, elegance and finesse and it just TASTES GOOD.
No need for intellectual tasting notes. One word will suffice--MORE!

SIMPLE BEAUTY

Visitors to Squitchy Lane often comment on the beauty of the vineyard and of the views to the Yarra Ranges beyond.
Indeed, but there is also beauty closer at hand, in the trees surrounding the cellar door.

  It's hard to recall the decade of drought that we have only recently escaped. The trees have benefited from the last two years of heavy rainfall.

WHY DO WE CALL IT SQUITCHY LANE?

People often ask us about the origin of the winery name, Squitchy Lane. Well, here's a tongue-in-cheek answer, taken at yesterday's wine and food festival at Southbank. You don't find lanes much more squitchy than this (it's taken from behind our stand):

 It certainly was an interesting day. Sincere thanks to all the lovely people who turned out in the rain to taste the wines of Victoria, the great majority of which were from small producers who don't often get a chance to show their wines in Melbourne.
Here's a shot of Robyn pouring a glass of 2010 Pinot Noir:

I was continually amazed at the enthusiasm and knowledge of the visitors. They loved wine, so much so that they were willing to wear one of those silly ponchos, ruin their good shoes and generally squelch around in mud in order to taste some of Victoria's best wines.
Woodstock or Glastonbury, depending on your generation.......

And it's on again today but at least the rain appears to have stopped.
Once again, thanks to all our visitors. I hope you had as much fun as we did. We look forward to meeting you again at the cellar door, especially at our sausage day on April 28.
Of course, there is a real reason for the name Squitchy Lane but you will need to look on our website to find it.

HARVEST 2012

Here is a bin of our 2012 Sauvignon Blanc awaiting transfer to the winery for crushing, pressing and fermenting in barrels whence it will become our 2012 Fume Blanc. In barrel, the ferments have a similar character to the 2011 wine, probably tighter and more lifted in fruit profile than the 2010. By the way, I think the 2010 Fume Blanc could lay claim to being the most successful Squitchy Lane release ever. Now, success can be measured in many ways and I will admit to a rather non-scientific approach but I base my findings on the following:
--it's just about sold out
--more restaurants list this wine than any other Squitchy Lane release
--just about every cellar door visitor who tries it is immediately won over. I think it has the best strike rate of any wine on tasting
--it's a new label, with a new name, and therefore has no precedent  
And what's more, the 2011 is every bit as good. In fact, I think it's a little better.
The 2012 harvest was going beautifully until the rain. We have picked the Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot  Noir and Chardonnay and now have to wait a few weeks for the Cabernets and Merlot. We were lucky in that we picked most of the fruit before the rain. We finished yesterday with a small parcel of our Burgundy clone Chardonnay. 
So far, everything looks good. I'll give a special mention to the Pinot Noir--and even though it is very early in its life, this vintage looks exceptionally promising. To be continued......

GRAPE TASTING

SQUITCHY SATURDAYS- VINTAGE SPECIAL

VINTAGE is here and Squitchy Lane is a hive of activity as the many varieties of grapes are harvested from our Gruyere property.

Come and join the team at Squitchy Lane, as Steve Sadlier, viticulturist, explains in detail the wine harvesting process- from planting to picking and crushing.

Challenge your taste buds on fresh grapes snipped from the vine of Merlot, Cabernet and Cabernet Franc. A blind tasting is sure to test your palate.

We hope to also offer a small selection of grape juices, fresh from the press, for you to try.

An intimate experience at a boutique vineyard where you can speak directly to the producer.

If you've always been intrigued by the how and why of a Yarra Valley harvest, drop in to the cellar door between 11am- 4pm and get involved with vintage 2012!

Of course the finished product will also be available for sale and tastings on the day. Sit back under our umbrellas and enjoy a glass of wine in the peaceful setting of our Yarra Valley property.

WHAT: Tasting of grapes, freshly pressed juice and current vintage wines at Squitchy Lane vineyard in the Yarra Valley.

WHERE: Squitchy Lane Vineyard, 9 Medhurst Road, Gruyere

WHEN: Saturday March 3, 2012

TIME: 11am to 4pm

WHAT’S INCLUDED: Informative session with viticulturalist Steve Sadlier as he describes the harvest process from planting to picking and crushing. Tastings of different grape varieties, freshly pressed grape juice and current vintage wines.

COST: No charge.

CHARDONNAY HARVEST

2012 harvest starts tomorrow. We will be picking our P58 clone of Chardonnay (P stands for Penfolds since this is where this clone first came to light in Australia). It looks good, still retains good natural acidity and has all the tropical, limey fruit characters we are looking for.

 Bunches are small, as are individual berries. The clusters are not as tightly packed as usual which is great for air flow through the bunch to reduce moisture and humidity build-up. This greatly reduces any potential for damaging disease outbreaks. 
We bottled the 2011 last week. It will get a year in our temperature-controlled storage before it is released. It's slightly different in style from our previous wines, with the inclusion of a small amount of malo-lactic fermentation to add depth. 
Here's to 2012!

RIPENESS

The Pinot Noir bunches are ripening quickly--look back in the blog at earlier posts to see just how rapid the colour change and berry fulness has occurred--and I expect that we will harvest them within ten days.
It's been a marvellous ripening period for the early varieties such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. Acids remain high, thanks to the cool nights, and the rather mild conditions during the day have helped retain fruit flavour. Contrary to what might be called received wisdom, I like to see the grapes ripen quickly. The common view that long growing seasons give the best flavours is widespread--you'll see this opinion on back labels, on websites, in the media, in wine books and you will hear it in conversations with experts and opinion leaders. Well, I don't buy it. Given the choice, I'll take rapid veraison and ripening.
Often, grapes that take a long time to ripen lose natural acidity which must then be added at the winery. What's more, this long ripening can mean that the vines are over-cropped and struggling to ripen the crop load.
That's why I like the fast and even ripening we get at Squitchy Lane. It tells me the crop is in balance and that we will not be forced to add acid at the crusher. It also tells me that we have the right site for the grapes. There's a hard-to-define freshness that comes with all this--you can taste it in the Pinot Noir and the Cabernet especially although the Chardonnay also has it.
More on Chardonnay in the next post.

VERAISON pt 3

Some warm weather and things move pretty quickly! This is the same bunch featured only seven days ago.

VERAISON continued.........

Just a few days later......and the weather has been abnormally cold......but once ripening starts, it moves along pretty well. You can clearly see the colour change in these Pinot Noir berries now. They are still quite hard but they will begin to soften now as sugar accumulation takes place.