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.
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.
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).
