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.