We last heard from Andrew back in June when he reported that proto-grapes had started to appear on the Albarino vines. Here’s the lastest update from Galicia:

I imagine that today’s blog title might have grabbed your attention! Harvest? In July? What on earth is he talking about? Green harvest?

OK, so I confess, I don’t actually mean the harvest itself, but rather the preparations for the 2010 picking, which are under way in the bodega. The last of the 2009 wines have just been racked from their lees, and over the next four weeks we will start a programme of bottling – not only to give us sufficient stock to see us through, but also to start freeing up a few tanks in anticipation of the new vintage.

To be honest there is actually quite a bit of planning that goes into this, as there are certain tanks that we favour for use during the harvest (usually those closest to the pressing room). The trick is that after all the current movements between tanks, we end up with the right amount of space….. in the right place.

Of course we also have to take into account that, because of the extended ageing period of our “sobre lias” wines, we still have quite a high percentage of  the 2009 vintage in the cellar, and so we can’t possibly manage our wine movements without a good deal of forethought. Logistically, it is not quite as easy as you might assume, especially as we go out of our way to move our wines as little as possible. Moving wine = contact with the air = potential oxidation.

And there was you thinking that I spend my summer on the beach!

The delightful Angela Martin and her husband Andrew McCarthy run the Castro Martin estate, in Rias Baixas, on Spain’s Galician coast. You can follow their blog or get all the official info on their website.

Straw cover in Scholz vineyard

In my previous vintage update I mentioned St Hallet’s small batch system. The value of this approach becomes very clear when I’m bumping around the vineyard in Toby’s 4×4 on his rounds of the vineyards. Along with Viticulturist and Grower Liaison, Chris Rogers, in the back, there isn’t much these two don’t know about how Shiraz behaves in the different sub-regions of the Barossa.

Our remit for the day covered the Fechner vineyard in the warmer end of the Eden Valley (of which  2 acres hold  104 year old vines…think Old Block), the amazing Scholz vineyard in Ebenezer (which provides the heart of the mid palate of Blackwell), the Marshall Groom vineyard in Kalimna (which adds the more of the high notes and fragrance to Blackwell), the Hampel vineyard (which goes into the beautiful single vineyard Shiraz of the same name) and finally the Obst Vineyard in the area they like to call Moppa Hills. Chris and Toby came over all misty-eyed when we tasted around the 20 hectare Obst vineyard. Set on gentle slopes that form a natural amphitheatre shape, this is pure Faith Shiraz country and is a spot that the boys reckon they’d like to own one day. The fruit ripens differently around this large vineyard and the character and personality of the grapes change depending on the different soil types, aspect etc. Apart from all that, head to the top corner and you get a beautiful view rolling away from you. Unfortunately the current grower owners have already had the sense to put their house there and they come out and say hi, dogs and all.

Obst vineyard view

After getting a really good sense of the vineyard and the fruit ripeness, which is right on schedule and a couple of weeks off picking, we head to the winemaker’s best friend during vintage…the pie shop. Quick Cornish Pasty and we’re back to the winery to taste some of the batches that have made it into tank already.

We tasted through the fruit in from a wide range of classic St Hallett vineyards. I won’t go through them all here, but have picked out those that are destined for the Blackwell Shiraz, to show how different vineyards form the various building blocks for the final wine. These are only a handful as plenty of the fruit is still yet to come in (like the Marshall Groom and Scholz vineyards mentioned earlier).

Russell Original vineyard – intense black fruit, almost malevolent, from the eastern slopes of the valley, behind Krondorf

Baulch vineyard – much punchier, from the Seppeltsfield area, this will form the spine of Blackwell. Good tannin pull-through, rustic, you can feel the weight and density. Early this year

Hentley Farm vineyard – key Blackwell component for its inky concentration. Looks absolutely awesome, with dark cherry fruit and meaty, minerally components – complex

Working three shifts, 24 hours a day

Overlay the pressures of the picking, crushing and tank-filling schedule and it’s easy to see what a skilful juggling act is needed to produce the best possible, most authentic Blackwell Shiraz each year.  All the signs in 2010 are good. The fruit is coming along well, without any unexpected twists, no bad news on the weather front and a winery crew cranking along. Working three shifts (for the first time), 24 hours a day, Toby and Chris have the luxury of spending those extra few hours in the vineyards, talking to the growers, the picking bosses and the weather forecasters (!) just to ensure they make that all important small step, from good to exceptional.

The weather in the last two weeks has been perfect, nice and mild

We had right on average rainfall for the year but lots of it fell in Autumn when the soil cracks had not closed so the clay soils gained more than normal. Winter was quite cool but bud burst and flowering was early. A heat wave at flowering decimated the crop of Grenache and reduced set on Chardonnay and some Cabernet Sauvignon, however all other varieties set well.

Stainless steel baskets are used for some reds and all whites

Vigour is beautifully balanced with no need to water on many soils. Crop levels are very low for Grenache (many being 0.5 tonne to the acre), and Chardonnay came in at two tonnes to the acre on average, but all other varieties are normal. January was very dry and there was some heat at veraison which works well. Ripening has been mild with most days around or below 30 degrees with only a little rain about three quarters of the way through harvest. Nights have been cool to mild as a whole.

The white varieties of Riesling, Chardonnay, Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne are showing strong varietal characteristics with the Adelaide Hills wines looking excellent.

Night shift crew watching the sun set over McLaren Vale from the top of the tanks.

All the crops appear balanced and the red varieties are hugely exciting. The skins are very thick and dark with a good level of tannin. Early picked Shiraz is peppery with elegance and lots of length. Cabernet shows outstanding varietal character and tannin. Despite low crop levels Grenache is strong with loose clusters producing dark and very varietal concentrated wines with nearly all berries being shrivel free.  Berries have been turgid which always makes great wines. The vintage started about a week early but as it stayed dry and with balanced vines it was stress free and the grapes came on faster than normal. Sugar levels for most reds needed to be at the higher end of the scale to get the best flavour, however Grenache worked well not too ripe.  The Pinot Noir from the Adelaide Hills looks great with lots of character although yields will be down due to some rain and weevil damage. The finish will be earlier than usual with the usual suspects coming in last, Mourvèdre then Petit Verdot.

Small Ferments

The vintage at St Hallett is firing along on all cylinders. And that’s a lot of cylinders, believe me! For St Hallett, part of the skill is juggling an extremely lively tank schedule with such a range of fruit sources and picking schedules. When Stuart Blackwell meets me at the door he cuts straight to the chase and tells me that for Chris and Toby the absolute key is fermenter capacity planning and team communication as everything will and does change on a daily basis. There are no recipes as vintages always brings new challenges and the focus on individual sites means you have to adjust constantly to get the best each year. In a nutshell, if they’re all full and pumping along then you know the team is making the right decisions and that when it comes to blending time you are going to be in great shape with lots of different, separately fermented parcels to work with. The tank forecast works one week in advance and a quick tour of the winery later on confirms that pretty much anything without holes in it gets called into action to ferment different parcels: an empty hogshead or barrique will do just nicely thank you!

Fermanter plan

Such is the expertise of the team here and the slickness of the operation that winemaker Toby spends four days a week in the vineyards. He knows his winery team are on top of things and it’s his responsibility to make all the right decisions about picking. “The gap between exceptional and good isn’t very much, and a day here or there can make all the difference” says Stuart, who also likens the vintage operation to a top class restaurant kitchen, such is the early morning pursuit of quality ingredients at the market and the pressure to make the best of them.

As in other parts of South Australia, vintage 2010 is well ahead of what was once considered usual, but it is in line with the previous couple of years. Weather patterns seem to have shifted with a hotter December and January now meaning that the fruit comes along much faster. This isn’t a problem for Shiraz which likes to ripen quickly and in a linear fashion. When I was there at the start of March, they were just starting to pick the premium Shiraz areas like Greenock, Seppeltsfield, Lyndoch and Williamstown. Cooler areas like the Eden Valley will come a bit later.

Toby spends four days a week in the vineyard

St Hallett aspires to blend experience and evolution. There is lots of history here and Stuart’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the valley ensures that not an ounce of experience or cunning goes wasted. Alongside that, the young team in the winery understands and respects where St Hallett has come from but doesn’t try to work to any rigid schedule. Challenge is welcomed and trials and experimentation are the order of the day. What you end up with is an exploration of all the variety of the Barossa vine growing area and a young team that is happy to work with the natural idiosyncrasies, rather than against them. The by-product of this small batch system is that an in-depth picture of every different grower’s fruit and vineyard blocks (even down to the row) is built up over time, meaning that the grower is paid the right amount and is motivated to keep high standards every year. Without these relationships, St Hallett would be lost.

Continuing our harvest report month on Bibendum Times we thought you might like to hear an update from the professionals. Big thank you to Dan Coward for writing, directing and producing the videos!

Watch Andrew Hardy, chief winemaker at Petaluma explain what’s been happening in the Adelaide hills and talk about an unusual technical issue:

Toby Barlow, chief winemaker at St Hallett, takes us through the beautiful world of Barossa Valley Shiraz. Looks like it is going to be another good Shiraz year:

What to know what’s happening now in Mclaren Vale? Curious to know how the Riesling juice is tasting in Clare Valley?

We are publishing weekly harvest diaries from all over the southern hemisphere. Watch this space to get real time updates and some great pictures too.

I was going to delegate this task to one of our winemakers for the update of our harvest advance. Though after contemplating it a little, with the circumstances of this year, this vintage is really not only the most intense experience for winemaking but also the most intense experience I have lived and I want to try and communicate a little of it. As much as I wanted to try and maintain it in a couple of paragraphs too much has happened in the last few days to do this.

Vintage wise, we are having a cool year, particularly spring which affected flowering, which was delayed and very long. As a consequence we have in the susceptible varieties such as Pinot, Chardonnay, and Malbec a lot of hen and chicken effect. This is resulting in a lower than normal yield across most varieties, which we anticipate should lead to having some nice concentrated fruit.

Harvest started around 15 days later than normal, and particularly the areas south of Colchagua are having a much cooler summer. This is going to be very interesting with the Sauvignon this year, as in Curicó we are going to be harvesting the Sauvignon Blanc nearly two weeks later than in Casablanca!! Normally it is exactly the opposite.

Apart from the summer being cooler all else was pretty much moving along like normal, until February 27th when the earthquake hit. We were in full crush that night, and extremely fortunate that no one was hurt and there was little wine loss.

Myself, I was sleeping, having had a late evening with my parents visiting from New Zealand. An hour and a half later at 3.30am we where awaken with the house moving as if it was on a sea of water. The movement went for close on 3 minutes, which seemed like an eternity! When it finished I was able to quickly appreciate that through some miracle my house had not fallen down, and all my family where fine. Electricity was cut and the cell phone network was down immediately.

My next thoughts where for the night shift we had working so I headed directly to the winery. Driving to the winery, there was only one radio station with a very poor signal, which was operating, from which to try and get some information over what had just happened. Arriving to the winery, it was quickly appreciated the investment we had made in electric generators as we were the only light. I was able to be informed that no one had been injured, and most of the shift had naturally headed home to look after their families. There where a few hardy soles who remained and did we have a busy night!!!

There were several tanks which had been fractured and wine was just spurting out. With the handful of people who were there we started pumping wine like crazy from the broken tanks to sound tanks. It has been years since I have actually handled a pump myself, but thankfully it was bit like when you have learned to ride a bike, it all just came back. Thanks to this crew we only lost around 70,000ltrs, it would have been closer to 450,000ltrs if they hadn’t been there.

There were for us some real heroes that night, the night guard staying on duty, our maintenance team staying on and making sure that our emergency power supplies where all functioning. Our barrel cellar chief, plant manager and maintenance chief all arriving within an hour of the earthquake to minimize risk and damage. The student winemakers all came and helped in the winery during the emergency. They are certainly getting their vintage experience!

As light started to appear we could start to appreciate the damage that the earthquake had caused. Those of you who have visited Valdivieso know that it is an old building, and we were expecting the worst. It actually came through the quake quite well, all the warehouses which house the bottling and labeling equipment, plus the bottled wine came through with no structural damage. The older part which houses the wine tanks, a couple of exterior walls fell down, and the roofing was shaken all over the place, but the building stayed structurally sound, safe and usable. However we will have to realize some substantial repairs, though while many parts are still standing, some will be torn down and rebuild.

The presses were of course full and we still had 70 tonnes of fruit in plastic bins in the reception patio. With the handful of people who where available we set about finishing the presses and trying to leave some sense of order in the winery. It took us a complete day, until 8.00pm that evening, to finish of those three presses!!!! We were finally able to press the fruit in the bins on the patio on the Monday, three days after harvest. Maybe we will make a special cuvee from it!!

As the day went on we where slowly able to start to get an idea of the devastation, though it was very difficult, no phones, no internet, and for most people no electricity or water. One of our truck drivers advised us that Lontue had no water and that the mains electricity was broken. Through his initiative he started first with one of our trucks, and then the local fire brigade came, delivering water to the households in Lontue. Over the next three days, with the generator going we became a very central part of Lontue, with us being pretty much the only place where water could be distributed and where people could come to charge their cell phones to try and obtain information from outside.

During the week, thanks to the outstanding work of our maintenance team, getting all the refrigeration, water distribution, and electric distribution around the winery back up, we were back into harvest on the Thursday 4th, only losing three days of harvest!!!!

Thankfully of the all the staff whom work for us none of them or their families where killed or injured. Though on a sadder note two of our employees have lost their houses, and 7 of our temporary workers have also lost their houses. We are helping them with emergency housing while a permanent solution is reached.

The extent of the destruction really came home to me last weekend when with some friends we went to help out in a small village, Villa Prat, some 30kms from Lontue. This is a small farming village where nearly everything is constructed in adobe. Pretty much the entire village had collapsed, with people living in tents in their backyards. Only being small villages they’re grocery stores are all destroyed and the people are all reliant on emergency supplies being sent in. Much has been reported on the looting in some parts of Chile, but what has not been reported is the fantastic support coming forward from the Chilean people. In this village there where some 80 volunteers mostly university students who had been there already three days, helping the locals salvage what they could from there houses, furniture, material etc…etc…. We helped out with the distribution of the emergency supplies, which had been sent, and in dismantling a house that had been badly damaged, salvaging the materials for the owner, and then putting up an emergency shelter for them.

For us as a winery, the most important thing we can do is keep functioning therefore keeping our staff employed and with wages, so that they can get on with solving each of there individual situations. So while a lot of this report is not really vintage or wine related, it is a huge part of what this vintage experience will be.

Brett Jackson
11th March 2010

We have now broken the back of vintage, ticking over the half way mark this week with Adelaide Hills Chardonnay destined for the Lucky Lizard. 2010 has been a compressed vintage so far with an early start and a lot of varieties ripening at similar times. Overall quality is excellent, particularly for reds owing to consistent temperatures with mild to cool nights during ripening. Some Cabernet ferments are nearing completion and flavours are on par with the very impressive Shiraz and Grenache according to Chester.

There was some rain last weekend followed by a cool week with temperatures in the mid to low twenties which has slowed ripening a little and provided the winery a chance to catch up, which is ideal. It will be a slow start to next week with a lot of ferments mid way through, the latter part of the week will be busy with more picking planned and a lot of pressing.

To make way for 2010 wines Chester is in the process of blending the 2009 Grenache wines including The Ironstone Pressings, The Derelict Vineyard, The Cadenzia, and The Custodian as well as the Shiraz based The Laughing Magpie and The Wild Pixie. The 2009 Grenache is particularly exciting, so definitely a vintage to watch.

hand-picking at the Hanlin Hill vineyard

Nothing about bringing the grapes in at Petaluma’s Adelaide Hills winery at 6am lends itself to thoughts of global warming. It’s bloody freezing! The Adelaide Hills region is always full of surprises and the diurnal temperature swing can really catch you unawares. Of course I wasn’t actually there at 6am…but was reliably informed by chief winemaker, Andrew Hardy, once I’d made it up the hill from Adelaide at a tardy 8am.

It was ‘end of March’ weather, Andrew explained, which meant that vintage was tracking about a month early – a common theme in many of the regions I’d visited. Normally they wouldn’t have started by the end of Feb, but for the last 4 years, this has been the trend. Pinot Noir, destined for the base wine of Croser vintage was being whole bunch pressed as I arrived. The cold mornings are perfect for picking this delicate variety, with all thoughts of oxidation banished. The resulting Lenswood-picked, free run juice showed dancing strawberry character and fruit sweetness with soaring acidity – ideal for blending with the larger Piccadilly Valley fruit component for the sparkling base.

hand-picking at the Hanlin Hill vineyard

We jumped into an ancient (and probably only marginally roadworthy) truck to dump the mounds of marc up at the Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens. Between them, the garden and Petaluma have found good uses for the winery waste. In the old days it was mixed with droppings and turned into mulch for the gardens, but now it is stored there and then transported to the Barossa where the tartaric acid is extracted from the skins before the rest is distilled into grape spirit.

In the Hills it’s sometimes difficult to get a complete picture of where the grapes come from as hills fold into valleys, then fold into gullies, and it’s tricky to grasp it all in context. After 13 years managing these vineyards it’s an education to get in the car and tour the region with viticulturist, Mike Harms. “It’s unbelievable to think that a lot of our fruit will be off by the end of the week [5^th March]”. And there’s nothing wrong with the vintage in terms of quality. Good, warm, consistent weather has meant perfect ripening and the phenolics and tannins are all coming together beautifully.

view from the top of Mount Lofty

The coldest and wettest place in South Australia also happens to be one of the prettiest. At 762m above sea level we gazed down from the top of Mount Lofty and Mike gave me a quick masterclass in how varying vineyard aspect affects the fruit, with East facing blocks getting the morning sun, before being protected from the hottest rays of the afternoon. South facing blocks of Chardonnay tend to be perfect for the Sparkling, while North facing go into the Piccadilly Chardonnay. Off in the distance we could see Mount Barker, home to the (almost organic) Shiraz and Viognier vineyards. And then following the ridge as far as the eye can see to the right, we could just about see Clare Valley, 180km away, where hand pickers were already scouring the Hanlin Hill vineyard, harvesting another 22 tonnes of Riesling for Petaluma today. Then swivel the head back to the left and imagine the coastal range as it heads south, down to McLaren Vale. Three and a half hours drive and you’ll reach Coonawarra, the home of Petaluma’s Cabernet and Merlot, which are still a way off being picked. With a keen eye and a good guide Mount Lofty really is the place to see South Australian wine regions in their in all their glorious context. Not a bad spot for a barbeque either…

Old vine shiraz

I’m at  Knappstein and it’s time for Chief winemaker, Julian Langworthy to get me into some real action. Riesling and Shiraz are moving along okay and both will be jostling for centre stage in the winery in coming days. Overall, as at Friday 26^th Feb Knappstein was halfway through overall. After the last four years, the team here is used to earlier vintages – perhaps a month ahead of when things used to happen. Cabernet hasn’t ripened up yet, with the first in to come from the famous Enterprise Vineyard (more on that later). Sugar levels are coming along nicely there but the fruit intensity hasn’t arrived to the right point yet. This is an exceptionally old vineyard and production is miniscule, with only 1 tonne coming off each of the 5 ½ hectares. A crazily small amount of wine will be made there this year. Elsewhere small plots of Petit Verdot and Malbec are still in the ripening stage and Jules was getting all excited at the thought of where to go with his Malbec. Cult producer, Wendouree, made a name for itself in the valley with inspired Malbec blends and Jules thinks the opportunity there is massive. It ripens beautifully and has bags of flavour. Aussies haven’t gone Malbec-mad like other parts of the world yet but it will happen. In the meantime Jules wants to get a bit Willy Wonka, put on a funny hat and weave some magic with this red-hot variety. And I am certainly not about to stop him!

Shiraz in the making

Cheeky coffee and then packed off into the car with viticulturist, Kate. Jules was probably off to have a nap or something while we got out into the vineyards and did all the hard work. There is only one way to get the whole picture of the vintage, and in fact of the whole winemaking philosophy of a place…and that is to get out where the grapes are grown. And the Yertabulti Hill is a great place to start, offering as it does an amazing panoramic view of the Polish Hill River Valley, the main Clare Valley floor and the Skilly Ridge….all the way off to the coastal hills 110km away. The 50+ year old Enterprise Vineyard mentioned above is currently being replanted with cuttings taken from original vines as the old vineyard slowly succumbs to the dying arm disease (sound familiar? Anyone used that for marketing purposes yet?). The quality is still there but the yield has been decimated so the long process of re-establishing the vineyard is now well under way. Elsewhere I was fascinated by the Ackland Vineyard, which is unassuming to look at but sits at the high point of all the planted vineyards in the Valley. Jeffrey Grosset has a vineyard just 30 seconds away which he claims is 10 metres higher but with a dramatic flick of the cloak, I shan’t believe him. Ackland is split into 3 very distinct blocks which wind their way in very un-linear fashion along the contours of a ridge. As such these dry-grown blocks ripen at different times and offer fruit at different quality levels. It’s always a wine that I look forward to each year. Later back in the cellar door I tasted the 2009 Hand-Picked Riesling which is just a cracker and I can’t wait for the 2009 Ackland to be released, such was the glory of that vintage. Hopes are similarly high for the 2010 edition as well as the vintage conditions have been extremely kind to the vineyards this year, with a long, slow ripening season and no damaging rain or frost episodes.

As Kate disappeared to deal with a rogue picking gang I tootled back to the winery in the cab of a pretty old truck carrying six 2.2 tonne coffin bins of Shiraz back to the winery. The driver, Luke I think it was, confided in me that no one else on the roads could drive properly…which I knew already of course, and we jerked and jolted our way back before getting those Shiraz grapes straight into the crusher and then tank, with the grapes steady around 10 degrees centigrade during the process. Back on the crushing machine I marvelled at my clearly natural winemaking ability as the sun reached higher in the sky and my neck started to burn. “Yes, thanks, I’d better go in and taste the range now…no, I’m happy for someone else to take on the crushing station for a bit.” Ok so I’m not quite a winemaker yet! Anyway it was bloody boiling and I fancied a glass of Knappstein Brewery’s awesome ale to soothe my dusty throat – beautiful. Before too long the last batch of grapes for the day was through and the team were able to sit down for a traditional Friday vintage barbeque which must have cleaned out an entire butcher’s cabinet. Seriously…I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much meat before for so few people. None of us were arguing, mind, as we settled down, chatted and generally took in the view next to the newly built toilet block (…!). Idyllic would be one word.

Check Dan’s first go at winemaking in his previous report from Knappstein.

Fresh juice at Knappstein

I made wine the other day. Shiraz grapes from the Stobie vineyard came into my crusher, at which point I twiddled my knob and sped up or slowed down the speed of the crusher-destemmer and then adjusted the speed of the pump accordingly. The deep purple juice then sailed off happily down a big fat hose into a tank. It was wine and I was a winemaker….easy. Sure there are still a few processes for that juice to undergo, but now that the hard work is done, I’ve left all that in the capable hands of chief winemaker, Julian Langworthy, and his very capable team at Knappstein in the Clare Valley.

Now I’m back in the big smoke, thinking I’d get up a bit early to write this. Meanwhile Jules has already been up since 5am welcoming the first Riesling of the day. That’s if the day is cool enough that they can get the grapes in and crushed with the absolute minimum of oxidation. The clean, pure, pristine Knappstein style demands this sort of handling and also makes the picking schedule a pretty intense juggling act. While I was there, the forecast was hot, so Riesling hand picking was postponed for a day while the early-ripening Shiraz blocks took centre stage.

Big Dan at work

Our day started slightly later than usual, at 6am, when we hit the winery to gulp down some coffee and indulge in some gentle singing (or was this my imagination?). Our first batch of Shiraz was late in so we tasted the ferments and the juice in tank to get an idea of how vintage 2010 was travelling. First up a batch of Auburn Riesling from the southern end of the valley which reminded me of cloudy, natural apple juice; not unpleasant at that time of the morning, but not of the style or quality to make it into the Knappstein Hand-picked Riesling. Next up a tank of juice from the Ackland vineyard in Watervale. This was much more like the house style, pure and driven with lemon and lime to the fore and complex aromatics sitting astride the lengthy finish. 12 Baume, great juice and one very happy winemaker.

Along one and the tank held juice from Jules and wife, Alana’s, own block – the Lacy vineyard. Immediately more pungent on the nose, it was absolutely dripping character and floral complexity. Not bad for something that comes from your front garden. Then a real style change as we got stuck into the 8.8.18 – a really interesting wine that Knappstein made for the first time last year. More Germanic in style, the first attempt had 8g total acid, 8% alcohol and 18g residual sugar, hence the name. By definition this year the label will have to hold a different name and Jules imagines it will be in the 9-9.5% alcohol region. A real mineral tang and a steeliness to the acidity. Juicy and lifted with a character that I could only describe as black tea spice. Jules looked at me dubiously and we moved on…

One happy winemaker

We next sampled from the 1700 litres of Pinot Gris that Knappstein crush…a tiny amount really. Intense and interesting with vibrant pink juice; the colour will drop out later in the process. It sounds a bit silly but I always get a really grapey character on good young PGs and this was no different. The Gewurztraminer in the next tank makes up the bulk of the blend (70%+) for the Knappstein Three (Riesling being the other variety). The only thing holding back the growth of this delicious wine is the lack of good Gewurz in the valley. Well every drop of the 8500 litres here was precious and a quick taste showed why. Beautifully floral with that trademark precision of acid and balance. Tangy with apple hints and the fruit sweetness that characterises great Gewurztraminer in my mind. We finished up our little tank tour with some old vine Shiraz that had already been in tank for a couple of days. It was soft and plush with loads of blackberry and boiled sweet flavours. Interestingly there was also a hint of that vanillin oak character (even though it had been nowhere near a barrel yet) which Jules explained he often sees off old vine Clare Shiraz.

Watch this space for part 2 of Dan’s harvest diary where he finally pulls his sleeves up and gets into some real harvest action.