Randall's Tasting Sat 7/11/09

A quick note to let you know that I'll be doing a Shiraz tasting at Randall the Wine Merchant in Bridport St. Albert Park this Saturday 7th with Gary Mills from Jamsheed wines. Gary makes fabulous, spicy Yarra Valley Shiraz/Syrah, and also a Grampians Shiraz from Garden Gully Vineyard where many of you will know I source some grapes also. So there will be a great range of Single Vineyard Grampians Shiraz from the 2008 Vintage (and great Yarra gear also) to try. Gary has had some huge reviews for his 08's so it's really worth coming down for a taste.

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2008 Shirazes released November 1st

This weekend will see the release of our 2008 Shiraz wines to the retail and Restaurant trade, so before you all ask here is the list of those Melbourne venues that have jumped on early - thanks - we luv ya! I'll be in Sydney and Brisbane in the next few weeks so I will update this post as more venues stock up. Boccaccio Cellars - Balwyn Randall the Wine Merchant - Albert Park and Hawthorn The Melbourne Wine Room - St Kilda Mr Wolf - St Kilda Ezard - City Seamstress - City St Jude's Cellars - Fitzroy More to come... I'll be doing a tasting at Randalls' Albert Park store next Saturday, 7th November from 12:30, along with Gary Mills' Jamsheed Syrahs - excellent quality from The Yarra Valley and sourcing some fruit from similar sites to us in Great Western. come on down for an old fashioned Shiraz-off. For those who want to know more about the new releases, see this post. Sales will be available on this site from Nov 1st.

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Wine retail trends. Imports

At the beginning let me acknowledge that i have not done the research on the exact figures. But let us accept that there is a prevailing increase in the sale of imported wine into Australia. As one wine scribe rightly pointed out to me the other day, Australia has been a closed shop for way too long, and indeed it was only a matter of time before the global wine octopus extended its tentacles as far as our isolated shores. Globalisation and a strong Australian Dollar creating more favourable conditions aside, The maturity of the domestic market lends itself to consumers wanting to seek out new wine experiences. I know I do. This increase in the number and variety of brands to our shores will, on the whole, mean more choice for consumers (good thing) more wine fun to be had (very good thing) and from an Oz-winemaking point of view expose our wineries to a greater diversity of wine style and wine ethos, in turn increasing the quality of our wines. (better still!) But I sense something a little worrying happening at the moment, and it is the waft of opportunism, rather than the healthy desire for diversity, that's stuck in my nostrils. The increase in imports is inevitable, and good. Just like immigration, we in Australia cannot xenophobically try to perpetuate a false mono-culture. I say false because we inherited (and have developed it) from other lands anyway. In the same way, our wine culture was imported here from Europe to begin with. The tyranny of distance has forced us to make our own way, with little outside input since. And we stand proud of that tradition. We have created a strong industry. But as physical and economic conditions become more favourable for imported wines, we must accept that our rarefied existence will be impacted. I think this is a great thing, and the strength of our industry depends on our ability to adapt and evolve our winemaking to the changing world market, and most importantly, seek the ever more pointy tip of quality, and distinction. OK, preamble over. I'll get to the bugbear. As this evolution occurs, the profiteers move first to capitalise on the interested novice consumer. I have seen floor stacks and shelves once the domain of Australian producers given over to cheaper imports of (and this is the important point) little-known french and Italian producers because the retailer has imported them on the rising Aussie dollar, and because they bear a recognised AOC. Many I have tried are undeniably faulty, with brettanomyces, mercaptans and oxidation the main culprits. These faults would be unacceptable in Australian wines at some of the levels shown (I'm not a complete technocrat!) but unwitting consumers are being led to believe that this is terroir! There is a margin in it, it has a pretty bottle with french writing on it, and it needs explaining by the sales assistant. Bingo! ching-ching. It saddens me. It speaks to the cultural cringe that Australia can't seem to shake. That imported is better. And it also speaks of the larger retail chains having absolutely no interest in educating the consumer or bettering our industry. They are simply playing the j-curve, peddling inferior products to an immature market. It has nothing to do with quality. But perhaps that is the way of all new product categories. As numbers increase and education levels rise, inferior products will get found out, and replaced with better ones. Or at least that is my hope. Already we are seeing new importing companies bringing out great products at great prices. And these tend to be the smaller companies that survive not on their economies of scale but on their reputation and on their skill. I applaud them. May they make the learning curve ever steeper, and swifter.

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Thanks to all of you that attended our launch at Dino's Deli in Windsor to try the 2008 wines for the first time. We hope you liked the new offering!

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Bottling - more intensity!!!

Today and yesterday was consumed by bottling our 08 Single vineyard Shiraz wines and a barrel's worth of experimental white wine (we need something to drink this summer!). Put plainly it has left me absoutely spent. For those who haven't had the privelidge, wine bottling is accomplished in our case by hiring a mobile bottling line built into the back of a semi trailer to which you connect your tank full of wine, load up your bottles and then remove boxes of filled, labelled, capped wine - easy right? Well I may have oversimplified for dramatic effect. In reality, it requires some extra labour to pack the bottled wine into cartons with dividers and then send it through a taping machine and then stack it on a pallet and not forget to keep feeding bottles in the other end and not forget to continue to assemble enough cartons and not forget to check the pump pressure is nice and low and not forget to order the right amount of bottles, labels, cartons, pallets and not forget to check the labels are straight and the caps are applied properly and not forget to check when the tank is getting low so you don't suck air into the filler head and try to do it all as fast as you can because you're getting charged by the hour! It is the final hurdle. The last opportunity to stuff your wine up. The anxiety is tangible. But there is a happy ending. it all went well. We're done. lots of new boxes of lovely new wine to sell to a discerning public. And a moment to relax with a glass of new, decidedly young wine that right now tastes blissfully of relief.

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Tasting at 'The Steelyard' Aug 23, 2-5pm

The Story will be pairing up with friends Urimbirra Wines from Mansfield, producers of some handy Chardonnay and riesling this Sunday for a tasting at a great new bar in Blackburn called The Steelyard. Tastings wil include the Story 2007 Shiraz, Urrimbirra 2008 Chardonnay and 2007 Merlot. Wines will be available to taste and drink by the glass, and you can even order wine on the day if you really like them! There will also be live jazz from The Secret Empire to really set the dial to 'relax'. If you are in the area pop by and have a wine with the winemakers. click here to confirm and see map below for directions. Hope to see you there!

The Steel Yard 73 Railway Road Blackburn 9878 3300

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2008 Wines release schedule

It's coming to that time of year again when we get our new wines in order to release. This year we will be releasing 3 Shiraz wines, first to out loyal mailing list customers At the end of August and then to the general public, retailers and Restaurants in November.

Our Grampians Shiraz Blend this year is titled 'Wilderness' to represent our move towards more natural winemaking processes and equipment - the use of indigenous yeasts for all ferments and the use of wooden fermenters which I believe give softer and more integrated tannin structures and have better insulative properties to maintain fermentation temperatures. Wilderness also represents my move into the unknown of self-employment, to fend for myself finally as a full-time Story person. This blend is of 4 vineyards, and is a dark, yet mid-weight shiraz with exciting aromatics and lovely balance. A seductive little number.

We also have 2 Single Vineyard releases in very small quantities. We again have a Westgate Vineyard shiraz, showing its lineage from our 2006 release with typical blackberry and cassis drive, good acidity and lovely texture. We also will release our first Shiraz from Rice's Vineyard, a warmer site near Stawell, which is more earthy, with riper, bigger tannins and hints of minerals flecked through the aroma. Both are regional, yet distinctly different and I think showcase two distinct terroirs.

For those of you who will taste the wines at our pre-release tasting on the 29th August I'll be interested to hear your thoughts!

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follow us on twitter!

I've just signed us up for twitter - it's so easy to give a quick snippet of information about what's going on at the winery or what I've been drinking that day that I couldn't resist, depite being an avowed facebook sceptic and shunner. for those of you that want to scroll down on the righthand side of this site, you'll see our twitter feed. Follow us at @storywines. It's addictive. go on. you know you want to.

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Vintage wrap 2009

Friday saw the last of the wine for 2009 put to barrel, a tonne of Shiraz from the late ripening Henty Estate Vineyard outside Hamilton. With it ended a long yet well spread vintage that from my last post could have been disastrous but in fact looks very promising. A quick precis: 15.1 tonnes harvested from a projected 18, 7 seperate picks from 5 vineyards, 3 in the Grampians GI and two from the Henty GI including a tonne of Pinot Noir for interest. Our largest production to date, with a projection of 1100 cases. Our Biggest change however, was our new digs. Yes, we have moved from our spiritual home of Factory 6, 5 Arnold St. Cheltenham to a newer and larger winery. The move was prompted by the realisation that with an increased volume the facilities were no longer scaled to cope with both the number of barrels or the effluent that came with it, and not wanting to fall foul of the local council we took up a generous offer by Rollo Crittenden and Matt Campbell at Latitude 38 winemaking a mere 15 min down the road at Patterson Lakes to bunk in with them. I was told by another winemaker that regardless of trying to do things the same the mere change of location would result in stylistically different wines being made, and i was apprehensive of messing with what I thought was a pretty good formula (if it can be called that). He was right, but change is good, and the style is subtly different from last year, but still recognisable as The Story. A larger premesis and more fermenter space allowed for longer skin contact on every parcel, something I'd been searching for for a few years, and the extract is probably a bit more evident than last year as a result. I had been planning on progressing the style in any case, and the extra elbow room and leisurely pace of vintage allowed me to explore without pressure to press or juggle. Combined with the fact that i'm now 100% full-time at the story, each ferment received unprecedented attention and consideration. They were less sulphidic, slower, used less acid, no yeast or enzyme and a greater percentage of wholebunches and stems than ever before. The net result won't be known for some time but even at this early stage the wines could be characterised by 3 things - texture, earthiness and purity. I was very keen in 08 to keep my pH's under 3.5 for the duration of natural ferments to try and avoid spoilage yeasts, and that worked well. This year i've been a little more relaxed about acidity to chase greater texture and mouthfeel. It is a bit more risky, but vigilance in completing alcoholic fermentation to minimum reducing sugars and greater attention to barrel cleaning and care should take care of that. Less acid generally means less apparent fruit brightness, but this has been countered by higher whole-bunch percentages which has delivered a greater carbonic maceration character and preserved high-tone aromatics - or so I'm telling myself! One of the other changes has been the speed of malolactic fermentation this year. The sheer volume of wines in the winery creates more airborne and casual yeast and bacteria, and pretty much everything has sped through and has finished or is very close. This should alloww me to get the wines cooled down and put to bed for winter where the low ambient temperatures should retard any spoilage also. So the wash up? Some pretty pure, natural and textured Shiraz this year. perhaps not the minerality or zip of 08, but they have great structure and should develop nice complexity over a long period. There are potentially 4 single site wines that could come out of the vintage as well as the Grampians blend which will be particularly strong I think, not to mention a pallet or so of a cheeky little pinot as well. It may in fact be too many wines to release all at once. I'll gradually sort out what tastes really good, versus what is just good, and start whittling it down from there. Above all, if I do put out a few different wines from 09, I want them to all be very diffferent, have an added layer of complexity and above all be reflective of their individual terroirs.

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Heat, fire, drought. Vintage 2009 - what will it be?

2009 is shaping up to be the 6th hot vintage out of seven, with the exception being the mild 2004. In January Victoria and South Australia faced unprecedented heat with temperatures in the 40s for several consecutive days. The already dry soil profiles provided little to combat the burning of the sun, and many growers in Mclaren Vale and Barossa and in the Yarra Valley were reporting berries shrivelling through Veraison or even simply dropping off the vine, such was the stress the vines were under. Uneven ripening, severely reduced yeilds and in some cases little to no crop to ripen at all seem likely to be the result. And then the fires began. We have all seen and heard of the devastation and tragic loss of life and property, and some in the industry have attempted to update us with the impact on grape and wine producers, notably Max Allen's effort here . Vineyards have been lost in the Yarra Valley around Kinglake, St. Andrews, Healesville, Yarra Glen and Dixon's creek, and wine and buildings lost at Domaine Chandon and nearby wineries. But that's not the end of it either. As alluded to in Max's article, the ongoing issues from the smoke that continues from those fires still burning near Warburton and now near Daylesford could ruin those grapes that have managed to cope with the heat and fire. Some reports indicate that the wind, stronger than in the smoke tainted 2007 vintage will keep most of it away but the longer they continue to burn, surely the greater the threat. One can only surmise that there will be significantly less wine from the Yarra Valley from 2009 and what wine there is may need further treatment such as reverse osmosis to remove smoke taint. The quality implications are significant in this instance also. The Yea Valley, Beechworth, Heathcote and surrounding regions will be to varying degrees affected in this way also. This leaves the western and more northern regions to provide much of the bulk (and quality) from 2009, not forgetting the Mornington Peninsula which seems to be down on volume but without disaster. And what of us? Well, we seem to be eerily well off at present (he says touching wood). Three of the vineyards we purchase from have had adequate access to water from the Stawell recycled water pipeline to provide some competition against the heat, and fire has not been near us, in contrast to the huge 2006 Grampians Bushfires. And probably most critical, the vines were behind schedul slightly when the hot weather hit, and had not begun (or only just begun) veraison. The vines hadn't kicked into ripening and softening mode yet, and were still in their vegetative cycle, which I think really prevented a lot of the variable ripening that warmer, earlier South Australian vineyards were seeing. So far so good. That said I do expect some variable ripening this year, and I have the sneaking suspicion that flavours will be late developing, so we will probably have to delay picking a touch to ensure the flavours catch up to the sugar ripeness. Perhaps we will see some higher alcohols as a result - I hope not because we were starting to get on top of this in our very balanced 2008 wines, but i suppose it's better to have flavour plus alcohol than no flavour at all! I'll begin tasting through the blocks early next week as we're starting to get to around 12 baume - a trigger point for me that we need to start getting ready. A year for the patient and the vigilant grape-taster I think.

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2007 Grampians Shiraz ($22) now released!

This year’s story is a simple tale of the dangers of vintage with its long hours, heavy machinery and frantic pace. Our 2007 label depicts a shockwave, a fleeting moment, a flash of inspiration and less metaphorically, a near miss with 240 volts. Yes in a sweaty moment one March evening last year I managed to drive over the power cord on our destemmer, which I was soon to find had made the whole stainless construction ‘live’. As testament to the stupidity of the rushed, I continued on despite this knowledge tipping bucket after bucket of fruit into it, feeling tingle after tingle as the sugary juice acted as a conductor to my body. ‘But it’s the last tonne!’ I was heard convincing myself… 2007 was another potentially disastrous season in the Grampians, after the devastation of the preceding year’s bushfires. Several frost incidents reduced crops on many vineyards, in some cases completely, and as a result good fruit was harder to come by than usual for us. We were restricted to just two vineyard sources, down from four the previous year. Fortunately for us these are two pretty good vineyards, namely the Westgate Vineyard (that in 2006 made a pretty handy single vineyard release) and Concongella Vineyard (that is possibly going to get its own separate bottling in 2008). Drought and hail further reduced our offering though, and so we took an unusual step for us and purchased a bit of extra wine from the region to make a reasonable volume to sustain us. The source was serendipitous, Westgate Vineyard had some of their wine available, and so more of this excellent vineyard is incorporated into The Story Grampians Shiraz blend than ever before. This is compounded by our decision to declassify all single vineyard wine into the main blend, to ensure its quality. It will be a dent to our income but it was the right decision for the quality of the wine. Stylistically this has translated to a more subtle, pretty, dare I say feminine expression of Shiraz, in the same vein as last year’s ‘Westgate’. There is less emphasis on fruit sweetness and more on balance, palate texture, perfume and line. The tannins are more grape derived than oak derived, and they are little more than a dust jacket for the back palate. I see this vintage as a bit of a sleeper. Shy at first, but with the balance to evolve into something very complex in the medium term. For now, give it a good decant to let the aroma build.

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2008 Shiraz Releases

2008 'Wilderness' Grampians Shiraz	Another Warm Year. The harvest dates were a few days earlier than those in 2007, there was little to no frost and yields were medium sized. Berry sizes were very small, indicating rich colours and tannins. This year we used all natural yeasts which gave slower, more gentle ferments. We also began using wooden fermenters along with our regular food-grade polyethylene ones, to provide more rounded tannins. We used only 10% new French oak, to create supple, less drying wines and to let the natural fruit and 'mineral' aromas shine through. Fruit from another vineyard was added to the blend this year. Sourced from a vineyard where the climate is much cooler and ripening is not until the very end of April, which enables intense pepper and high-toned aromas in this blend and lower alcohol levels also. The final blend comprises Westgate Vineyard Young vines 42%, Garden Gully Vineyard 40%, Rice's Vineyard 10% and Henty Estate Vineyard 8%.	Average vine age approx 29yrs. 13.5% alc. pH 3.49 Total acidity 6.5g/l 560 dozen produced.
2008 Rice's Vineyard Grampians Shiraz	Garry Rice's Vineyard just outside Stawell is one of the warmer sites in the region. The soil is sandy and light and very hungry with quartz and other rocks flecked throughout. It only ever produces around 1-1.5 tonnes per acre – very low indeed and is 17yrs old. It tends to be harvested about 1-2 weeks earlier than our next warmest site, in the first 2 weeks of March. This wine was fermented with natural yeasts in open, 500lt oak puncheons with 30-40% whole bunches to add complexity to the tannin structure and to build aromatics. It was not racked from barrel until bottling, and 50% of these were new French barrels from the Mercier cooperage. It was bottled without fining or filtration.	Vine Age 17yrs 14.5% alc. pH 3.50 Total acidity 6.9g/l 50 dozen produced.
2008 Westgate Vineyard Grampians Shiraz	This is my favourite vineyard in the region. Its oldest vines were planted in 1969 and are now 40yrs old. It is a much cooler site on an easterly aspect which loses the sunlight an hour or two earlier than nearby sites, which tends to delay ripening by a week or two. This wine follows on from a similar wine released from 2006 which was named in the top 100 wines in Australia by James Halliday. The grapes were 100% destemmed and fermented in 500lt open oak puncheons over 14 days before resting for 14 months in French oak, approx 40% of which was new, from Francois Freres, Gillet and Meyrieux coopers. The vineyard generally exhibits very floral Shiraz characters and wonderful length without being heavy or hard. Again this wine was bottled without fining or filtration.	Vine Age 40yrs 13.5% alc. pH 3.39 Total Acidity 7.1g/l 150 dozen produced.

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06's now sold out and we're off to France

We received a great review on tuesday in the Age's Epicure section by Ralph Kyte Powell, who gave the wine 5 stars and a big thumbs up for value, and with that, the rest of the 2006 wines have sold out. Apologies to those who have missed out, but rest assured the 2007 release is just around the corner, sometime in late November I think to firstly give it a bit longer to get over the trauma of its bottling, and secondly to wait for Anita and i to get back from France, for which we depart on Saturday. We'll be heading to paris for a few days then down to the spiritual home of Shiraz/syrah the Northern Rhone Valley, which is just south of Lyon. A few tours and some serious research will be undertaken there and we are lucky enough to be meeting up with Adam Foster, winemaker of Heathcote's Syrahmi label who is working at Domaine Pierre Gaillard this vintage - I forgot to mention it will be vintage there! the best time of year to go! With time away from the rigours of Melbourne I should be able to post a little more frequently than i have been of late (apologies) so look forward to some glorified romantic musings from winemakers heaven.

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2007 bottling coming up

The 2006 wines have been selling well in no small part due to the exposure received from James Halliday reviews and the like, and should be sold out shortly - the Westgate Shiraz very soon indeed. At the same time, thoughts turn to the 2007 wines and preparing them for bottling in the next couple of weeks. I have been tasting barrels, scoring them out of 5 and weeding out any bad barrels. Luckily, there seem to have been none that require omission from the blend. The only problem has been one of volume - and lack thereof. Grampians experienced significasnt frosts and drought, not to mention a little hail at a critical stage of the ripening process and as such fruit availability is down. I was very fortunate however that one of my growers who has their own label made by a respected local winery had some surplus wine from their block, from the same fruit I purchased. After much deliberation and blending trials, I have taken the unusual step of purchasing some additional wine to produce a reasonable volume for the 2007 vintage. It is a path I would not have undertook were it not for the wonderful quality of the available wine, the complimentary nature of the blend, and the knowledge that the resulting wine will be well worthy of the label. I'm probably making too big a deal out of it come to think, but this site is supposed to be an honest look at my winemaking! While we're being honest, the small volumes available and a desire to maintain the quality of the grampians blend have also meant the hard decision of not making any single vineyard releases from 2007. There will only be one wine from the vintage - the Grampians Shiraz, this year from two vineyards, Garry Rice's Concongella vineyard just outside Stawell, and the Dalkin's Westgate vineyard at Armstrong. Fear not however, the 2008 vintage (young as it is) already has a couple of parcels that look outstanding and all things progressing well should be up to seperate bottlings - but more on that later. Just prior to bottling, the 2007 is shaping up to be a very balanced, supple and aromatic vintage. It will be dangerously drinkable early in its life, but I think the balance of elements could show it to be a bit of a sleeper. Alcohol is in balance, so is acid, fruit is ripe and at the red end of the spectrum, texture is pleasing, and tannins very fine in support, less overt than those of the 2006. Of course time will tell, but i'll probably have a few bottles available before Christmas, as long as it settles down well, and you can be the judge then.

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Vintage 2008 wrap up

With the last fermenter pressed out a week or so ago, and all wines now in barrel, i'll give a bit of a wrap up on the vintage. Vintage was a long one by our standards, with fruit from the warmer Concongella Vineyard beginning to come in around second and 3rd weeks of March, and our last fruit coming in on 20th April, from Henty estate near Hamilton (outside the grampians GI) and much further south. This is indeed marginal Shiraz country, but in warm years like this one I think it's these cooler sites that will provide much needed aromatics and acid structure. Indeed, it has proved to be the case with an intensely peppery, highly lifted young wine from these 17 year old, PT23 clone Shiraz vines. I'm excited about working with this site - it'll really add some cool-climate spice and liqorice/black fruit characters I think. In short, this vintage saw a new direction in winemaking, in an attempt to take the wines to a new level of distiction and interest - there's plent of shiraz out there! - so I went back to the future, so to speak. At least 3 lots this year received open wood fermentation in 2 yr old troncais Puncheons with one head removed, and there is a definite difference in the tannin structure of these wines - the tannin is earlier, and builds with the fruit through the palate. The conventional, food-grade plastic fermenters by comparison show more upfront fruit character and liveliness, but show a seam down the middle between where the fruit ends, and the tannin begins. It was an experiment well worth doing, and I think I'll be investing further in this direction next year. More savoury, more integrated. More difficult to clean and maintain yes, but I think worth it. The second, and probably most important change was to do away with yeast inoculation altogethre and rely on natural fermentation. There were a few nervous moments as Ethyl Acetate (nail polish remover smell) is characteristic as the ferment starts, but this seems to blow off by the time the cap of skins is up, and from there I saw a dramatic redcution in the amount of Hydrogen sulphide produced, and lower fermentation temperatures - 2 things I've been desperate to deal with. in some cases, no DAP was necessary as nutrient, wheras in the past I've used heaps to keep the racing fermentations happy (with patchy results). All of the wines are dry now I think, so stuck ferments have not been a problem. it was not entirely successful however - one ferment took a long time to get going, and the Ethyl Acetate smell seemed to persist for some time - I'm not sure it ever went away 100%, despite furious pumpovers to blow it away. I'll look at the wine again after malolactic fermentation and see if it is detectable. A small lot, it may add some high-tone aromatics in small doses, so I don't think it will be overall too detrimental. Wild ferments - a big winner for me this year i think. The third major change was to begin trying to include a significant percentage of whole bunches, and by extension, stems into the ferments. This is only really possible on the hand harvested fruit, so all but Westgate Vineyard saw at least 30% whole bunches at the bottom of the vats. It not only gives more tannin, but also some lovely spice and another layer of complexity if done right. Time will tell but I just love the smell of ripe shiraz stems - lets hope others do too! My new oak regime has changed slightly too - I'm trialling 4 new coopers - Francois freres, Gillet (I've had second hand ones that i've liked), Meyrieux (tny burgundian cooper that is known for going well with shiraz) and Mercier (who makes a barrel called 'delicate' from troncais which I thought would be nice with westgate fruit). i'll do a comparative analysis later on down the track, but all look promising early, Francois freres more bacon like, mercier more buttery/popcorn like, meyrieux spicy and vanillin and gillet assertive and toasty but with great fruit lift. So what does all this add up to? Well the biggest thing was getting ripe fruit at under 14 baume, which i have managed to do completely. Alcohols will be lower (hooray!) but structure will be greater I think. Above all, the emphasis has been to move away from simple fruit flavours and go towards more integrated, deeper, more savoury and spicy expressions of Grampians Shiraz. I think there's hope for 2 or perhaps 3 single vineyard bottlings from 2008 - the early indications are hugely promising - wilder, more exciting and more complex wines than I've ever made. Then again, it could all get brett.....

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2006 Wines outed by Halliday

It seems the new wines have been outed - I sent samples to James Halliday for his forthcoming book (out in August 08) but he has seen fit to review them this weekend in The Australian so I have decided to make them available a touch earlier than I had planned. The 2006 vintage was indeed a good one, despite the terrible bushfires in the region, and as a result I have had a good enough parcel to release a Single Vineyard Designate wine from Westgate Vineyard ($38, J.H. 96 points) as well as the Grampians Shiraz ($20, J.H. 95 points). I have not yet added tasting notes to the site but will do so shortly. The story for 2006 was undoubtedly 'change' as we lost the grapes from one vineyard but gained two more vineyards for the blend. The methods too were a little different - new yeasts, new coopers... new directions. We will be releasing these wines officially at the Grampians Grape Escape at Halls Gap next weekend, 3rd and 4th May. It will be a quality wine weekend with some excellent producers so if you're in the area pop in and say hello. Any enquiries for the new wines, please hit the 'email the winemaker' button on the right of screen. For a full read of James Halliday's article see this link James Halliday's Australian Wine Companion

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Vintage 2008 in full swing

Ok kids, It's been a while since my last post - vintage has hit like a train and all when Anita and I have been trying to move house so i've been frantic but having just pressed out and barrelled down parcel 3 of 5 for the vintage and having a bit of breathing space before the next lot, i'm ready to tell all so strap in... Vintage began in a flurry with a week of insanely hot weather in the middle of March, so Concongella Vineyard was up and running with a tonne or so of lovely looking shiraz at 13.6 baume and mature skins and good flavour. I took delivery of 3 awesome puncheons with one head missing that had only been used for a couple of weeks in 2006 so have a nice bit of oak flavour still in them, and I christened them with this lot, which I thought wouldn't get any new oak afterwards but just older french barriques. I added 20% whole bunches because I love the tannins they can give, and I thought that the wood fermentation would help them polymerise better. I also allowed the fermentation to go wild, so before I let whatever yeasts were on the barrels get to work I first crushed into an open plastic fermenter which I knew would be 100% clean, waited for fermentation to begin, then bucketed it all out into the puncheons. The insanely hot week that followed meant that I had some quick ferments on my hands, and the insulative properties of the wood kept all of that heat in so they peaked at 36 Celsius, a few degrees higher than i'd like. still they seem to be going dry so all's well... The fruit was looking lovely so I asked Garry Rice the vineyard manager for some more and he luckily had some - so down came another 750kg a few days later. For contrast, I fermented this one in one plastic fermenter, and with 25-30% whole bunches, and aiming to press it early so i got a lovely carbonic, aromatic blenting component. The hot weather meant that it fermented quickly also, and was almost dry when pressed, but it got much less time on skins, and when it went into the press there were a heap of perfectly preserved, uncrushed bunches that although had fermented mostly inside each berry, still had some residual sweetness. together, the blend has lashings of dark, mocha tannin which is very fine and carries right through the palate, but a nice, delicate perfumed nose and berry accents. Lot 3 was the first delivery from Westgate vineyard, from Bruce Dalkin's younger block. These are a different clone (PT23) to his older vine material which is from the old seppelt vineyard dating back who knows how far. These vines tend to be a week to 2 weeks earlier in the ripening pattern than the older, which Bruce thought was a factor of vine age and aspect, but know believes may be clonal. Apparently a similar thing has been found at Mt Langi Ghiran who sourced their original vineyard material from the same place. At 13.4 baume it was pretty much right where I wanted it. I like to try and get the sugar level down lower than this for at least 1 batch each year, to mitigate the effect of any freakish, warm weather that might blow out the figures on a subsequent parcel. Always good to have some blending options and as an added benefit, some cooler, spicier material gives some delicacy and aromatics to the final blend. This stuff has been fermented wild also, in 2 x 1500lt open plastic fermenters, and was pressed yesterday at close to dryness. Nice even ferment, no sulphides, no DAP used....the only addition so far has been acid but that's one thing I don't think I'll be able to avoid adding for some time. it's just necessary for stability, and to dirve the fruit character through the palate. no acid in wines can give nice mouthfeel, and definitely 05 had a lower acid level, but I think for longevity and for structure, acid is a must. Some may argue this! So, we now have 12 barrels or so filled, with another 12 or so to go. Westgate Vineyard's older vines look like being picked on Tuesday, which is almost exactly the same date as last year. I'm looking forward to this parcel - it's been my favourite the last 3 years... Next post I'll talk oak I think. And yeasts - I think I will have some good anecdotal evidence to support my decision to leave it in the packet!

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Grapes are ripening...

It seems from most reports that harvest is going to be early once again, with vineyards in the grampians seeing shiraz veraise at present or just through and hence only a few weeks to go before we see some grapes in the winery. As I type the rain is beginning to bucket down in Melbourne and I'm shuddering to think what it might be doing to berries that in some cases might be pretty full already from a decent soak pre and post xmas. Hope there's no splitting about to happen. It will probably only affect the earlier ripening sites as the rest should have several weeks to recover. I hear that yeilds are looking promising and quality should be high (all things progressing well) and I just hope that we see similar flavour accumulation to 2006 when we could pick early with lower sugars and good flavours. I've managed to secure 3 good quality puncheons for use as experimental open fermenters which I'm thrilled about because I'm a strong believer in the soft complex and integrated tannins that wood fermentation seems to give over stainless or plastic. I'm definitely going to play with a little pinot and chard this year also - but just a barrel or so of each - and also a little gamay from a friend's 35 yr old vineyard near Mansfield in snow country. Should be very interesting! Will keep you all updated as the fruit gets closer to ready.

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What to make in 2008?

Its time. In more ways than one. Obvious electoral references aside, its time to dust off the equipment, check the press, start sourcing next year's oak and secure fruit supply for 08. There are heaps of options available, new trials, new techniques, new oak regimes, but first I need to decide what, and how much I want to and should and can afford to produce. After the smaller harvest of 07 it would be nice to pull in a bit more shiraz, which I intend to do, but i'd also like to tinker with some barrel fermented white of some sort, and a barrel or two of Pinot also. The white would have to be chardonnay, which I love, but which is just a bugger to sell - It may have to be a barrel for home consumption only - sorry guys. (here I am assuming it will be good and people will want it!) The Pinot on the other hand might be available, but just as a giveaway with the shiraz. The concept of making a wine simply to give away intrigues me; the influence that price has on perception of quality and therefore desirability is something I ponder frequently. I'm sure studies have been done on this by marketers and business analysts but having a wine that can't be bought (unless it is tied to something else) but which might in itself be desired could create some lively discussion... (here I am assuming it will be good and people will want it!) Many have also pondered the worth of other artforms - what price beauty? Radiohead have contributed to this dialogue most recently with the web-only posting of their new album, and asking people to pay what they think is fair for it. Many have paid nothing, many have paid regular retail CD price, most inbetween. At least they aren't capitalising on demand in the same way that some musicians (and more pointedly their management and tour promoters are) by auctioning the first few rows of seats to certain concerts, as the Police have done for the first time in Australia. Perhaps the wine industry will soon see indent auctions for low number, individually numbered Grange and the like. I suppose the secondary market already does this to an extent however, but I do think the way we purchase wine is set to change, as with all other products. This may be the one thing that breaks the stranglehold of the big supermarket chains on wine retail. Could the internet be the saviour of the (boutique) wine industry? Personally I hope so - ideally small wineries would increase their visibility relative to that of the bigger wineries that currently have the economies of scale to discount and dominate the supermarket chains and with greater choice the consumer could purchase a greater variey of wines with quality the motivator. The flipside to this ideal of course is the reality that the large wineries will still have the marketing dollars to advertise their site and acheive a greater number of hits. The macro issues are also prohibitive to the smaller producer, as the larger service providers and search engines are all businesses that sell their valuable page space to the highest bidder - Fosters is much more likely to get traffic if it buys ad space on google's homepage or msn. At the very least if every small winery can afford a domain name and small site, then they can get some shelf-space. But this is for further discussion. Right now I need to get on with washing some barrels, calling growers, and getting some new equipment toys to play with. I need a new destemmer after I almost electrocuted myself last vintage (grape juice seems to be a good conductor) and I'm dying to try fermenting some shiraz (and pinot) in some old puncheons with one head knocked out. The tannin profile is completely different to that of stainless or plastic or concrete fermenters. They just seems better integrated. Things to ponder... I will discuss the first blending options for the 07 shiraz next post.

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Campbell Mattinson review 92 points

Another review has popped up over the last couple of days, this time by Campbell Mattinson on his Winefront online publication. Unfortunately the review section is for subcribers only so I can't post the link, but if you are a fan of wine then this is one of the better online publications - Campbell's style is romantic and evokative and well considered, and I am trying to not make this sound like a bit of mutual plugging, but am not doing a great job! Amongst his comments -

"There’s a stamp of class to this. A long, toasty, smoky finish takes it out. It’s a serious wine"

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2005 Shiraz receives 92point review

Our 2005 (the orphan) Grampians Shiraz has just received a review of 92 points and some pretty glowing praise from reviewer Gary Walsh on the popular wine review site Winorama. Amongst other superlatives, he states "this is an artisanal wine dripping with love and regionality and it comes with a strong buy recommendation from me". For a full text version see http://www.winorama.com.au/tasting-notes/the-story-wines-the-orphan-grampians-shiraz-2005

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'06 now in bottle, now a bit about us

The 2006 wines have now been bottled, 375 dozen Grampians Shiraz and 74 dozen of our first single vineyard designate wine, from Westgate vineyard. I'm happy with both these wines, and in about 8 months or so, you hopefully will be too.

It's a good time now, as the 2007 wines have finished Malolactic fermentation and have been acid adjusted (about 1 g per Lt tartaric acid) and sulphured, to take a bit of time to say a little bit more about us. I started this tiny wine company in 2004, after having spent a couple of vintages in Oregon, and deciding I could probably make a reasonable drop of something I liked to drink, and that my mid-twenties mates would no doubt assist in me with.

I was already enamoured with Grampians Shiraz, in particular Clayfield Wines, Mt. Langi Ghiran and Seppelt St. Peters, and found it really surprising that there weren't more small producers emerging from the region, when it is renowned for its distinctive pepperiness, medium body and ability to age gracefully. I contacted a few growers and winemakers and was able to secure some fruit for the 2004 vintage, and some space to make it at Hickinbotham winery on the Mornington Peninsula, while I was also conducting some fermentation experiments on Pinot Noir for my masters thesis. Andrew Hickinbotham was kind enough to loan me the space, and The Story was born. I was soon to learn though that it is easier to be a) closer to home during vintage than Melbourne to Dromana and b) have the run of your own place and equipment at whatever time of day you need.

Vintage 2005 therefore was the first in 'factory 6' a 120 square metre factory shell in a fun block of 8 with a collection of other small businesses and hobby sheds. We have artists, builders, cosmetics manufacturers, remote control aircraft enthusiasts, and even a retired AFL footballer, making it an eclectic hub and a stimulating and fun environment. They all manage to gracefully put up with the annual smell of raging ferments too, something which I am forever grateful!

Since april 7th 2005 it has been our home. Grapes arrive at harvest time, Anita and I bucket them by hand into the crusher/destemmer, fermentation is completed in 1 tonne (and smaller) plastic fermenters - I favour hot, fast fermentation - and then the wine is pressed to barrel where it sits with 1 racking until it is put into pallet tanks and shipped out to the bottling line 14 months later. If it seems simplistic, it is intentionally so. Low assets, low mechanical inputs, good fruit and keen eyes on each barrel. Yet, for its simplicity, there are a million different ways the wines can turn out, and just as many good stories to go with them.

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Getting ready for bottling 06's

It's coming to the time when the wines are tasting like they need to be bottled - i.e. they now taste like wine rather than alcoholic grape syrup. The wood has integrated, they've smoothed out and they're dangerously drinkable...

The 06 wine is a blend of 4 parcels, two from Westgate Vineyard, one from Garden Gully, and one from Concongella. I have recently done a fining trial to determine if the wine needs any smoothing out to knock any of the hard tannins off, and an addition of 8g of egg white per 100lt seems to lengthen the palate a bit (or really just remove obstructing tannins) to create a silky, 'sweetspot'. even 2g extra started to take away flavour, and 3g less seemed still a touch bitter - it's an incredibly fine line and fascinating to taste the differences. All in all I'm pretty confident it's a good follow up to the 2005, and seems to be very much in the same style.

I've decided I will keep some Westgate Vineyard shiraz seperate - all 36yr old vines and nice, deep, long and juicy fruit. I'm leaving this alone - no fining and no filtration to preserve every tiny particle of flavour. but the bad news is there's only going to be 70 cases.

Bottling is set for the 14th of August, but you'll have to wait for another 8 months or so before it's released. Unless you ask me nicely. I'm not shy in opening wine as many of you would attest.

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Winery Open Day - art and wine - June 16th

We're lucky enough to have our factory neighbour and successful artist Richard Dunlop exhibit a collection of his Botanical Landscapes at the winery on Sat June 16th to help celebrate the official launch of our award winning 2005 Grampians Shiraz which we have entitled The Orphan. Anita and I travelled the globe for 4 or 5 months in '05, and our little vinous babies were left to fend for themselves in barrel for the duration, with the occasional topping from friend and winemaker Hope Metcalf.

Come on down for some fabulous artwork and a glass or three of Shiraz from 1pm. There will be some sumptuous cuisine care of the Lane family on offer also, not to mention some pre-bottling trials of the '06 Shiraz, and a single-vineyard reserve I have in the pipeworks also...

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2005 Shiraz - Bronze Medal

The 2005 'orphan' Grampians Shiraz has just won a Bronze Medal at the Federation Square Western Victoria regional Showcase. There were some pretty crackerjack, big names there, so we're pretty happy with the result. Thanks to all that helped this wine happen.

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Vintage 2007 wrap up

A while since the last post, this should be a lengthy one...

Vintage 2007 was not the hottest on record, but probably the second. The knowledge gained from '06 was invaluable, most importantly viticulturally but also in a winemaking sense. Firstly, was the need to monitor sugars constantly, as the lack of water again produced small berries that ripened quickly, meaning that in order to retain reasonable alcohol levels the fruit needed to be picked when ripe, but with very little leeway beyond that. I get the feeling that the growers have now adjusted to the March harvest dates and are better prepared and manage the potential vine stress better now than they may have in the first big drought year, 2003 which followed a cool and wet 2002. As winemakers we are also learning to back off and employ less extractive methods than in previous years to avoid excessive tannins and dry, unapproachable wines.

The frosts of the preceding spring meant that Garden Gully was out of the question for fruit this year, which left it to two, Concongella Vineyard at Stawell and the ever-reliable Westgate a little further south near Armstrong, below Great Western. I'll go through each in turn.

Concongella was again very early, and while I was intent on picking before the sugars climbed too high and hence a little lower than last year, The flavours were there and we picked at just above 13 baume, importantly so, to enable a lower alcohol blending component should the rest of the vintage prove excessively so. The fruit had predictably small bunches and we destemmed entirely because I thought the stalks were still too green and would impart that herbal, weedy character if left in (although I have been hanging to get some more stalk into my Shiraz for a while - it just needs to be ripe and woody rather than green and weedy). The ferment took off very quickly as hot temperatures over the picking days and low SO2 addition saw it rocket off on day 2. Indeed it continued in that fashion, and fermented dry in 4-5 days. A peak temp of 33degC was getting on the verge of too warm, but it seems to have gone dry, so no matter! That said, I would have liked to have kept it on skins a few days longer, and left it to sit in the fermenter for another 3-4 days to make sure there was adequate tannin extraction. A total of 8 days is shorter than ideal, but had to do. Sometimes you just have to press out to create tank space, and because the wine is dry and in an open fermenter!

After being inoculated with my new favourite malo bacteria VP41, It has hammered through in about 3 weeks and has been racked, aerated to remove a bit of a sulphide smell, had 1ppm Copper Sulphate added to remove any last stinky traces, and had 65ppm SO2 added to put it to bed for winter. It is early in its life but it is currently showing a forward, red-fruit palate, soft long tannins and pretty nice balance. A touch more structure would have been nice, and maybe I should have left it on the vine another few days for phenolic development, but I got it off with low alcohol, and probably a good thing too. It is the blending component I wanted it to be. interestingly though, it is completely different to its 1 year old brother, whose dense, tannic frame needed to be tempered by both blending and fining, but then again, that's the difference another couple of weeks ripening without water makes.

Westgate Vineyard was harvested some 3 weeks later, which was to be expected in the cooler southern hills, and again the Dalkins delivered a fine load of aromatic, structured fruit. Colouring up well early, I decided to leave 5% or so of stems in, to try and build further structure as I knew it would have to deliver the guts of the vintage. The only problem with the fruit was it's volume - the hail late damage in the other section of the vineyard that I was due to take fruit from was too great, and so it was only the 35yr old vines that I received. I was keen to try some wild fermentation with this vineyard, so one of the 3 fermenters was allowed to go of its own accord, and it did so with little trouble. The resulting wine is a little more savoury, but I think more interesting and with a more integrated and seamless palate than the other batches that were fermented with dry yeast, this year Lalvin D21 (which is supposed to contribute licorice and spice characters, and produce few sulphides. Those batches were more fruit forward, and more what I am used to from that vineyard, intense blackberry and supple, long tannins.

The wines have had some time to rest now, and some barrels are going through malo while others seem to be taking a little longer to start. I need to retest for malic acid in the next week or so, but for the present everything is topped up and sitting nicely, and it has afforded me some time to clean up and prepare for the bottling of 2006 (which I shall post a note about soon) and some social functions as well. I held a great dinner with some winemaking friends a week ago on the Saturday night, and as all involved will attest, 2006 wines are shaping up well, as was some 97 fizz and some 2007 Chat Noir Rose! I might even call for a guest submission for a more thorough post on the night....

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Not quite there yet

the vineyard seems to be slowing - a touch of rain last tuesday has brought ripening into check, and it seems that it has risen from 12.4 be last friday to 12.6 on wednesday. We'll sample again Tomorrow, but it looks now that we will wait till next week. By that time the skins should have had a bit more time to toughen up and seeds brown off a bit, colour develop and tannins ripen and deepen a bit. i'm getting impatient as everywhere else seems to be picked out or picking, but really it's a blessing - all this February Harvest business is a little unsettling, and although 06 was early and a great year, I'd like to see a return to 2004 and a longer hang time to give stems, skins and seeds a chance to properly mature before sugars get out of control. Will update further on the weekend.

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vintage is coming!!!!!

After my first trip out to see the vineyard for a while at Concongella near Stawell on Saturday (17th Feb) it seems that things are well and truly progressing, with a very small crop (1 tonne per acre max) and a small but healthy canopy that shows an absence of any real yellowing or stress from what I can see. Gary Rice has kept the water up to them well to ensure that the crop gets home and it looks like it will be around the same time as '06. Friday saw 11.6 baume, up about 1.5 beaume on the same time last week. Based on this and a little more water being added to stop things from drying out, the fruit will be at 13.5 or so within 2 weeks. Tasting the fruit yesterday the most encouraging sign is that despite the early vintage there is definite flavour in the berries, and nice acid too. I haven't done any figures yet on the acids but i'd say that pH would be in the 3.2 region, which will now probably begn to rise quickly with another hot week forecast.

Looking back on last year's fruit, berries were definitely smaller, spindly and loose bunches with little juice and tough skins. This year, berries are a little bigger, but still with small bunches, only the skins seem to still be very thin and not that impenetrable, robust taut crunchy tannic style. I hope that they toughen up a bit more, that the phenolics develop so that there is enough tannin and depth - although last year's was a little over the top so we need to be careful not to stride too far. If we get the hardening of skin, the browning off of seeds and that burst of flavour within two weeks, we'll pick. If not, maybe i'll wait another half a week or so, and deal with the extra half a percent of alcohol. Although, I always regret picking too late...

In fact, last year we harvested on March 8, so we may even be a little earlier than that - if that could be thought possible.

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2006 wines progress

As all the wines have finished malolactic fermentation now (bar two pesky barrels of Garden Gully with higher alcohol that I will try to reinoculate) it is time to assess and begin the process of blending trials. Considering there are only 3 ways a wine in my stable can go at present (reserve/single vineyard, main blend, drain) I started by simply sampling all barrels and giving them a rating, to cull any nasty ones and to start dividing between ones that might be nice in a reserve blend and, the rest, really. I then think about the style of wine that I want the reserve to be, and set about doing trial blends with likely candidates that fit the profile. I have had 2-3 barrels of Westgate old vine material earmarked for sometime as being favourites for their long, cool, dark fruit core, delicate spice and an almost refreshing, lightness to them (that seems a funny descriptor, but is about power without weight) and threw them together, bearing in mind the amount of new oak and whether this would become a dominant trait. From then I began to tinker, seeing if there were any holes in the palate that needed pushing out by some more fruity or denser material. I played with some more tannic Concongella wine but that seemed to detract slightly from the balance, but a touch of Garden Gully (about 7%) seemed to fill the middle out nicely and give some more depth. Any more and the alcohol was beginning to show a little, so I left it at that. In the end a blend of material from 5 barrels has gone into a very exclusive 3 barrel Westgate Single Vineyard reserve, (with a very small injection from down the road). I'm pretty happy with the way this blend looks, the 44% new oak seems to have been pretty much swallowed up by the fruit and there is a lovely balance of fruit, acid, length, intensity and importantly, a long core linking all the elements together. From there, I put the rest together and started playing again - this blend is more apparent earlier, more toasty bacon oak (although the percentage is lower), more aggressive tannin (which may get a light fining) riper fruit, plumper and not as long, but still very nice wine - I think I'm fortunate to have had several parcels to blend from, the mean values cancelling out any of the excesses of one. The leaner spicier Westgate young vines gets some meat, depth and power from Garden Gully, the remaining Westgate old vines barrels give the consistency, and the three barrels of Concongella add some tannin, some higher tones, some anise and liquorice and seem to pull the rest into line a bit. I think it will end up being a bit more complex than the 05 blend, of similar weight, but with a little more tannin. The time is looming when I need to now pull all the wine out of barrel, blend them up, remove the new oak and replace it with some older barrels for the wine to rest in (and so I can use the newer barrels for the coming vintage) and let them come together. Bottling would be better moved forward a month or two I think - I want to try and retain the freshness and fruit and avoid the wines getting that 'dried out' wood flavour, which is another reason I will pull the new barrels out sooner.

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This wine is sold out

Sorry, the wine you have selected is now sold out. We apologise for this but it also means we are surviving as a business and can make more nice wine next year.

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2005 Grampians Shiraz (the orphan) $20,$18 by the dozen

The orphan tells the story of a 5 month holidayto Europe and hence a 5 month period away from my wine. Indeed he was orphaned, but with some occasional topping from my friend Hope Metcalf, he has turned into a fine individual indeed.

Growing Season The year began as per usual, with average yields and well set bunches and a mild but dry spring and early summer. Veraison sped through with significant rainfall in early February, which gave the vines some relief and some energy to metabolise, but Melbourne endured some eerily cold and almost apocalyptic storms and flooding. The cooler weather brought ripeness into line, if a little slow even, until sugars began to shoot skywards in early April, and some growers began to get itchy picking fingers. Flavours were still missing however, and while sugars ended higher than one would ideally like, those that held their nerves were rewarded with wonderfully intense berry flavours and ripe tannins. Older vines, with established root systems and a greater ability to withstand climactic variance, fared especially well. Acid levels were moderate, but importantly, early indications from the vats and barrels show prodigious depth of fruit and balanced, ripe, fine tannins. These will be bold, intense and age worthy wines I feel, and winemakers in the region have been heard to murmur that 2005 could be one of the best Shiraz vintages for a long time. Westgate Vineyard With selections from both 35yr. old and 8 yr. old vines, Bruce and Robyn Dalkin delivered flawless fruit to the winery with their trademark integrity, honesty and professionalism in 2005. The old vines provide the structure and the complexity while the younger vines bring that hint of juiciness and freshness to the front-palate. The up-and-down weather conditions did not phase these vines one bit, and fruit arrived with beautiful flavours that, from barrel samples, indicate a long, drawn-out blackberry and plum palate and very fine tannins. An elegant package that balances power and delicacy, this wine is probably the pick of the lots in the cellar. Typical Analysis: Harvest Date: 14/4/05 pH: 3.6 Baumé: 14° T.A.: 8.0g/l Robinson Vineyard This six year old vineyard is usually one of the latest sites in the region to be picked due to its cooler location in the hills south of Moyston. After a very cool 2004 vintage for this site, canopy management was improved significantly to be one of the most healthy of all those in the Grampians which helped to ripen the fruit more quickly. Flavours in the younger vineyard were later to develop. We held to our principles of picking according to flavour ripeness and it paid off, with deep spicy, peppery aromas already wafting out of the picking bins when delivered to the winery. The stems in particular smelled so good when the grapes went through the de-stemmer that I just had to include some whole bunches to get that smell into the wine! 10 percent was modest, but has really added extra complexity and structure. The trademark Robinson Vineyard black pepper is here in spades in the 2005, but it is backed up by a massive punch of fruit and even, spicy tannins. A big, rich Shiraz that absolutely screams ‘Grampians!’ P.S. – There is a bit of hype around for this vineyard, it has a unique peppery character and Shiraz-friendly Ordovician soils and Organic Management to boot. Typical Analysis Harvest Date: 21/4/05 pH: 3.6 Baumé: 14.9 T.A.: 7.5 g/l The vintage will only be truly judged once the wines have had some time in bottle, but early indications are that these wines will be powerful, ripe, smooth and long. They may not be the elegant, savory wines of 2004, but they will have more intensity and more immediate presence in the glass and in the minds of those that try them.

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05 and 04 bottled, labelled and ready for sale.

Having labelled the majority of the 04 Shiraz, and finally having it ready for sale, the 05 is hot on its heals having been bottled, labelled and put into cartons last wedesday. I made things a lot easier for myself by simply putting it in 3 pallet tanks and shipping it off to Michael Unwin Wines where bottles were sourced, labels put on, it was screwcapped and went into cartons all in one hit. It then simply comes back on a truck and gets put in the factory! 361 dozen. So simple. It does mean that I have to rearrange a few things to make room for the 5 pallets worth - not my biggest concern however and should all fit. All I have to do now is go out and sell the stuff! It's about time, I can assure you... In honour of the readiness of the 04 for sale, I have decided to have a launch party down at factory 6 on the 29th of October, to show the wines, have a few drinks and thank a few people for their help. I will get some invitations out soon, but it will be a nice way to really mark a special occasion for this enterprise.

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2005 Grampians Shiraz bottling

After perhaps sitting in barrel a couple of months too long, the 2005 Shiraz is finally being bottled. I say too long because i am concerned that it has lost a little bit of freshness, and is a touch dried out by the extended time in a non-airconditioned factory, so i decided to blend a small percentage of 2006 shiraz into it to pep it up a bit. Luckily a few barrels have already moved through malo and so were stable. Bench trials definitely proved that it was a positive addition, and hey, I get a bit more 05 wine! The hope that there would be some worthy material to 'reserve' for a single vineyard bottling was dashed by the fact that the final blend really needed it to maintain overall quality, so there will only be one release from The Story for the '05 vintage. I have some pretty high hopes for a few barrels of Westgate Vineyard old vine material that are really showing great balance, length and finesse even at this early stage so with any luck it will get its own bottling. I am considering moving bottling forward a little next year to before vintage for the grampians blend to ensure that I retain the freshness and brightness of the fruit, which will also give me the advantage of being able to re-use barrels quickly. The trick will be co-ordinating with a winery who can bottle it at that time, and making sure all wine is through malo, fined, stable and ready to go. Bottling is on Wednesday, and there will be a further update then.

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Tucked away safely...

With the final fermenter pressed out on Saturday and put to barrel on the Easter Monday vintage 2006 is notionally over. Since last post the Garden Gully fruit was pressed and settled for 48 hrs before being racked to 6 barrels, with a few litres over for topping in tank. Probably the most meager juice yield of all the lots this year, the old vines must have decided to hold a little back for the sake of propriety, or possibly to retain the mystique, but what was allowed was indeed worth it. Early samples have proved to be the favorite of almost all tasters, and I think the lower total acid and indisputable length and balance (plus a healthy dose of ripe red and black fruits) have translated as a soft, long, crowd pleaser. Me? Of course I just think everything needs to be tighter and have more acid so you can't trust my palate..... Luckily then, the Westgate Vineyard Old Vines shiraz was crushed at fabulous figures and importantly ripe and elegant flavours with plenty of acid thrown in and looks smart straight out of the press with a long, focused, direct core of dark berries, good structure yet fine and some might say background tannins. I want this wine to form the spine of the '06 reserve wine and from the looks of it, it will. Of course there is plenty of time to bugger it up yet, but one has to have goals now, doesn't one? like pretty much all the wines this year it has been pressed until I thought it began to get bitter, and then was settled for 48 hrs and racked to 30% new French oak. This time, I decided that the cooper that housed the best barrel of '05 from this vineyard would get free reign, and so apart from the 4 older barriques, Taransaud has 2 starters, one a tronçais medium toast, and the other a 'special selection shiraz' barrel that I thought i'd give a go to. May they all malolactically ferment in earnest! I will write a vintage wrap up in the coming days, and from then use this site as a vehicle for extremist political rantings. Actually, while I do have a lot to say in that regard (without the extremism) I will focus on the progression of these '06 wines through their life in barrel with periodic tasting notes, blending proposals and other 'story' musings. Now the storm is over, it's time to begin boating again....

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The final stanza

With the final 3 fermenters of Westgate old vines shiraz inoculated today, we have entered the final stanza of vintage 2006. This stanza will of course endure through pressing to barrel maturation, bottling and beyond into the vinous unknown, but there is a distinct sense of the downhill emerging at factory 6. I have decided to go back to BRL 97 for 2 of the 3 fermenters, with one devoted to the more neutral (some might say boring) EC 1118. After three days soak all 3 fermenters had begun to ferment wild, and I did contemplate letting one or more of them go through without intervention. However a noticeable waft of Ethyl Acetate (reminiscent of nail-polish remover) tipped me in favour of the safer packet option. I wish I had more guts! Truth be known, I doubted that the yeast strain would be truly indigenous given it was sitting right next to a raging Garden Gully ferment, which was undoubtedly EC 1118 positive. Furthermore, the machine harvested fruit has much more likelihood of picking up nasty yeasts and bacteria on its way to Cheltenham than something hand picked. There's always next year.... I must say that there is considerable debate on the merits of wild ferments. Some say that while initially there may be discernible organoleptical differences between yeast strains, time brings them all more or less back to centre. Try telling that to Rick Kinzbrunner though. My own opinion is that if you can deal exclusively with one or two vineyards and you can cultivate the natural microflora within your winery over time, then you may be able to develop distinct flavour trends (which may or may not be positive ones - some vineyards are really prone to Brett!). If the former is the case, these wines will be aimed at the absolute pinnacle of the winemaking market. There is risk, but there is differenciation. I hope that I can get to this point in my winemaking career because I believe there is little point making under 1000 cases if it isn't going to be distinctive and special wine that people will remember. There is so much wine that is consistently consistent, and little more. That said, I don't think my winemaking or my equipment and site is up to that level yet. What I do have in abundance however is potential to destroy my still unforged reputation, so for now a bit of conservatism must reign, at least until I have the volume and the backing to experiment and, yes, possibly bugger a few things up. It looks as if the Garden Gully Shiraz has managed to ferment like clockwork, without racing or excessive foaming. It seems to be stable at about 28 deg. C also! There was a hint of H2S today, but that seemed to clear up after a long pump-over. I do this to encourage the yeast to continue to reproduce in the presence of what will be a reasonably large amount of alcohol (15% or so), to remove sulphides, and finally to help anthocyanin bind to tannin and form stable pigmented polymers, which means colour retention and rounder mouthfeel. What is interesting is that the pH is low - about 3.39 at last check, but the TA can't be more than 5.5 or so. It is really different from the other ferments, which despite almost sour taste still have pH's in the 3.5 region. It tastes eerily balanced, not tannic, not acidic, not too alcoholic... I don't really have anything to pin it down to! If I had a philosophy of wine, I guess that would be it - to create wines that you couldn't pin down. That were multifaceted and multilayered and at the end of the day able to defy description. When I drink a wine like that, it stops my internal critic. I just enjoy. Something all to rare as a winemaker. Let's just hope that the wine turns out to be just that. The other extreme is also possible I guess - plain bland.......

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I managed to stop the barrel leaking by driving 3 bamboo skewers in next to eachother in the leaking area. It seems to have done the trick! Pain to have to empty it though...

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Leaky barrels

After fielding a question from friend Bill as to how to stop a porous head stave from leaking/weeping, and giving the fairly useless answer "it happens, have the manufacturer replace it" I was punished for my flippancy and have been so afflicted with one of my own barrels (same cooper by the way, World Cooperage). Bill learned from the Schahinger barrel maintenance book that compressing the wood grain by driving a wedge or skewer into the affected area might tighten the area and prevent the problem, and had success. I tried the same thing today but I don't think I got the skewer in deep enough to really pressurize the leak and so it continues at the same pace, slow yet persistent. I will have to try again tomorrow, and will get of my slack arse and actually empty the barrel first so I can have a proper go at it. Hopefully the tide will be stemmed, finger in the dyke style. That was not a joke. The latest fruit in from Garden Gully was inoculated yesterday after one of the two fermenters began to emerge with hints of Ethyl Acetate, after 3 days soak at 16-18 deg. C. 75ppm SO2 is clearly not enough to keep wines from fermenting for very long once a few ferments have gone through and the winery is covered in yeasts, airborne or on equipment. It smells wonderful now though, briar and bramble and blackberries and other B words... but the cap is only rising slowly. Tomorrow and Tuesday will be the critical days when the yeast cell count multiplies exponentially, and temperature rises sharply. I am, as I have stated in previous posts, aware that this stage is when air and nutrient is required to keep yeasts happy and sulphide free. I really want to keep a handle on this one as I think it it has potential to be fantastic wine if made diligently, and if I am able to give it enough structure. I have another theory, which I can only test by observation rather than any objective trial conditions. It centres on the use of pectolytic enzymes. I have observed that many of the ferments in which they are used to split pectin in the skins and maximise extraction of phenols that there is accompanying breakdown of pulp and what appears to be a breakdown of yeast lees also. This powdery, leesy coagulate tends to coat the cap when the ferment is heating quickly, and I think it may be acting as a sort of gluey barrier to CO2 and heat evacuation. If this is indeed the case, it would stand to reason that heat would continue to build under the cap, and air movement would be restricted, increasing the likely conditions for sulphide production. If anyone has and theories on this or other sulphide reduction techniques, I'd welcome their input. Of course I have read most of the well known texts on the subject, so it may be time for less conventional, anecdotal remedies. The final fruit for the vintage should arrive at the winery on Tuesday from Westgate vineyard's old vines, and I have it earmarked for a reserve label if all goes according to plan. James Halliday gave their 03 Endurance Shiraz 96 points and top 6 status amongst Australian Shiraz in his latest book, so it has a good pedigree. Indeed the 05 wine from there is shaping up nicely and I think the best barrels will get a separate bottling when it is done in July.

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Westgate 1 pressed, and the potassium issue

After receiving the first lot of fruit from westgate's younger vines, I really tried to keep the ferments under control despite a few days of hot weather and the tendency of my one tonne plastic open fermenters to race. I got away relatively unscathed. I'm pretty sure they went through to dryness (tests to be confirmed) and there was only a slight amount of hydrogen sulphide which only occured once the temperature hit 32 deg. C. I pumped over and things settled down, but the dying stages of ferment must have produced a bit more because there is a hint of that milky note that masks the crisp fruit aromas in the settling tank. I will add 1 ppm CUSO4 on the way into barrel tomorrow which should clear it up. One point worth mention is the amount of acid added to this parcel. An initial pH of 3.6 ish crept up to almost 3.8 and after two successive additions of 2g/l and 1.5 g/l the pH is still 3.65. I guess my only option is to add another 2g/l and see what happens.... If anyone else has an opinion.... I think it is the hot vintage. The vine stress creates excess potassium in the must which reacts with and precipitates out tartaric acid as potassium bitartrate. it will be one to watch for the remaining two parcels this year. On a more exciting note Garden Gully vineyard was harvested on tuesday and although the baume is up a bit higher than I would have liked, the 60 yr old vines should have handled the stress and so i'm looking forward to a ripe, rich wine from this lot. 14.6 bé, 3.52 pH and high 5's TA seem like reasonable numbers. the fruit didn't look anythink like overripe, and I declined to add stems the ferment (which I wanted to do) because they didn't taste ripe and spicy enough - more herbal. I like to add stems for tannin and spice in Shiraz, about 15% but only if they're ripe tasting. Hot years like 06 probably don't give the hang time to fully lignify stems and give those flavours. A shame really, because I think it gives real distinction to the wine in a sea of homogenaity. And with Westgate old vines being the last lot in and machine harvested, There's always next year. Tomorrow will be spent making stillage for barrels, adding acid and then putting westgate young vines (they are 8 yrs old) to barrel. For fruit that lacks a bit of structure, and is a bit leaner, I think some heavier toast (M+, not H, it is too much for this region i think) is appropriate to add that depth and those chocolate, roasted flavours to hide any greenness. So it will get a Billon Vosges M+ and World cooperage Medoc which has a higher toast heat for a shorter duration. Garden Gully is much riper so will get a Cadus allier (which I think is a more subtle barrel) and a Mercurey Grand Cru.

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1 lot out, 1 lot in. Vintage in full swing

Since last post the Concongella vineyard shiraz has been pressed in my 70cm diameter basket press (which will get a tonne in - just) and left to settle over sunday and was put to old barriques on Monday morning. Having just tasted it today I can say that it will definitely be one of the more tannic lots in the cellar this year - the small berries, hot ferment and cold soak period combining to produce a bit of a monster. That said, it is still fermenting off the last few grams of sugar and as such it is full of solids which can often confuse the palate - but then again residual sugar generally hides tannin.... we'll just have to see when it goes dry finally. I had to get Concongella pressed out to accomodate the first of the Westgate vineyard fruit, which arrived at around midday that Monday. The fruit looked good, berries tasted good and not overly sweet - the 13.2 baumé was a welcome sight and it should be more in line with the elegant style I am aiming for. 2 tonnes went through quickly thanks to the assistance of Bill Skoufis and son Adam who kindly gave up their day for the cause. Only a stray bucket in the destemmer looked like slowing us down - and then only momentarily. The addition of a couple of grams per litre tartaric acid was necessary, but after adjustment it looks great. It has coloured up quickly and with more fruit due in this weekend I have opted not to cold soak this batch but rather just get it up and fermenting ASAP. I have used a new yeast with this lot - hopefully one that will produce fewer sulphides but still ferment relatively quickly. I couldn't get hold of any D21, so decided on BRL97 instead, after a big rap from the sales staff at the winery supply. It has started at a lower temperature due to the creeping cold nights and so hopefully the lower sugar level and the lower initial temperature will combine to give a more steady ferment that neither races nor stinks. Ha! it'll probably be stinking when I give it a plunge in the morning at this rate.

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Blazing ferments

The first fermenter full of fruit for 2006 has zipped through at tremendous speed, fermenting vigorously and hot and at times a bit dangerously. With a peak of 34 deg. C I was worried about cell death and a stuck ferment, especially given I have no cooling yet in rustic little factory 6, but all appears to be heading through in the right direction after the zero mark was passed sometime this afternoon. It is probably a good thing too as it allows me to press this weekend and have my first vintage of Concongella Vineyard fruit tucked in barrel before the younger vine Westgate fruit arrives on Monday. Silver linings everywhere.... Chats with the Dalkins this afternoon confirmed the imminent picking of one of their blocks, and so organising to have bins trucked out to the Grampians had me scrounging the whitepages and calling no less than 5 freight companies to get someone who could do the job tomorrow morning to connect to Stawell freighters at their Laverton depot by lunchtime and their last shipment out west. There are always last minute panics, especially when you are not really the planning type! The lack of cooling has me investigating some alternative yeast strains, and in particular those that might be slower fermenters and lower sulphide producers. Once these ferments get up and going - even if started at 17-18 deg. C it seems they're up to 28-30 within 48hrs. Then it's just a matter of pumping over and rack and returns to try and get rid of the Co2 and any H2S. Of course DAP is used, sometimes 2-3 times in smaller doses but this seems to merely add fuel to the fire so to speak. Warm ambient temperatures from the early season don't help either. Still, a few pump overs and the ferment seems to have de-stinkified itself, and it should be ready to press on Saturday, spend a day in tank settling and then go to barrel. I prefer to do that to get rid of the gross lees when there have been H2S events during fermentation. As a result of all that I might let go of the Lalvin D80 and try their D21 which is a very low sulphide producer. the other option I was thinking of is the BM45 updated strain which is now apparently a much lower sulphide producer than it used to be. Westgate should be in on monday, so here's to round two!

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Vintage 2006 underway

Vintage 06 for the story is well and truly underway, and it hasn't really crept up so much as smashed me in the face.... 4 weeks earlier than last season, and 05 wasn't especially cold either!

My reasoning is
1. winter and spring rains which put the vines in good order and ready to roll
2. a scorching hot summer, with regular days in the high 30s (celcius for the Northerners) and a good few in the low 40s.
3. below average fruit-set and hence yeilds down at least 20% in the Grampians.

Good for the grape purchaser who buys by the tonne, but he/she had better be ready early.

Last year and indeed in 04 it seemed like we were waiting and waiting for flavour, and it was a real concern of mine when going into an expected early vintage, but as far as I can see, and as far as i've been told by some more expert viticulturists in the area (thanks Nathan) flavour has strode into the saloon and poured itself a drink, and combined with those reduced yeilds and some pretty tiny berries, quality should be high - "a genuinely exceptional vintage" as one nameless viticulturist was heard to remark.

I have been purchasing Shiraz from the Grampians region of Victoria for the last two vintages, and now that the Story is beginning to get into full swing, I have increased the throughput of 'factory 6' to from 2.5 to 5 to 7 tonnes this year. I lost one vineyard, Moyston Hills, when they received an offer for all of their fruit at a great price (with exclusive rights the main clincher) from one of the region's bigger players, and it's a big shame because the vineyard was just starting to hit its straps in its 7th year. It is a much cooler site than most, and it exhibits wonderful black pepper and raspberry - really distinctive terroir (I hate that bloody word!). Maybe one day there will be some left over that I can have another go at..... Anyhow, I lost one, but picked up two more this year to compensate, and to spread my risk a bit. I was able to increase to 4 tonnes my alotment from the Dalkins at Westgate Vineyard, which grows some cracker 36 yr old shiraz. It has a great purity, length and finesse to its wines. They are leaner, less tannic, and have a core of juicy, ripe, blackberry and plum fruits that drives through and extends down the palate. Aain very distinctive, and the 05 especially is shaping up to be a great wine. At this point it's got the 'reserve' bell tingling in the back of my head. So I've got more of that, which is a plus, and I've also managed to get my hands on 2 tonnes from the Garden Gully vineyard in the heart of Great Western, which is at best guess 55 yrs or so old. I'm really excited about this one, as i've learned the benefit of having old vines from my recent trip to France, where both Hermitage and Burgundy showed the structure and framework and depth (without excess alcohol) that can be acheived with old vines. There's just an evenness, harmony, sychronicity, dare I say that word balance - to the flavours that makes for complex and complete booze. Can't wait.

Finally, I decided to take a tonne from Garry rice at Concongella Vineyard further northwest on the outskirts of Stawell. Garry has decided to aim for more even ripening, lower crop levels and less irrigation this year, and it has definitely had the desired effect. Bunch weights in the 80-90g range, on or under 2 tonne per acre, and tiny little berries! The only problem was that someone forgot to tell the guys on Mt Olympus and the heat and lack of rain brought sugars up really early. Still, with it being the first lot of fruit in the winery this year, picked last wed. 8th March at about 13.6 baumé, 3.6 pH and 6.1 TA, it has coloured up really well and could be really good. I guess we'll see. It has been on skins for just under a week now, and after 3 days cold soaking I innoculated and it took off like a raging bull, and it has been a case of just hanging on for the crazy fermentative ride to drytown and get as much flavour extraction in a little time as I can, while temperatures creep into the 30s.... And so I pump over, and over, and rack and return, to try and keep the beast from stinking up the place!

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2004 Grampians Shiraz (the journey) $18

The Journey of man and wine - but more presently, man and volvo. I drove thousands of km's during the 2004 vintage, between the winery where we made it in Mornington and home in St. Kilda twice a day, and to my day job inbetween, and then to the vineyard on weekends to check grape ripeness - it was slept in, kicked, sworn at but still much loved - like Bordeaux, 82 was a very good year for 244gl volvos.

Growing Season

The growing year began well, with average yields and decent bunch sizes, and a summer that was warm but not hot. Veraison was slow and there were several rain events through the season that ensured enough soil moisture to carry the canopy of leaves through the season. It needed to – the season tailed off with cooler weather and ripening stalled on some blocks. April came and went and still the sugars didn’t want to rise, not aided by a significant caterpillar population in many vineyards (vine moth caterpillars) which fed on the vine leaves and slowed photosynthesis and ripening. Flavours were still missing too so it was a matter of sitting and waiting. Luckily, rains held off late in the season so we could wait with relative comfort, and finally by early to mid May harvest looked like happening. The vineyards included in the 2004 blend were both around 6-7 years old at the time, and therefore a little unpredictable but the subtlety and lighter, spicy flaours of one were balanced by the richer, riper flavours of another creating a blend that includes a little bit of everything from the Shiraz flavour spectrum. This wine has developed now into a lovely, balanced cool-climate shiraz from a moderate to cool year, smooth, spicy, and with a silky texture and just a faint hint of toasty vanilla from the French oak. A keeper for the next couple of years, but drinking well now. Westgate Vineyard With a 1/3 component of the 2004 coming from their younger, 7 yr. old vines, Bruce and Robyn Dalkin came to the rescue so to speak. Their vines managed to hold good canopy and ripened nicely and with really rich blackberry flavours to balance that from the Robinson’s Vineyard, which may have been a bit light otherwise. It held good acid as well and was a nice, dense counter to the delicacy and spice from further south. Had it been left on its own it probably would have been a little over the top, so 2004 is a good example of the sum being greater than the two parts. Typical Analysis: Harvest Date: 11/5/05 pH: 3.78 Baumé: 14.5 T.A.: 7.0g/l Robinson Vineyard This six year old vineyard is usually one of the latest sites in the region to be picked due to its cooler location in the hills south of Moyston. A very cool 2004 vintage for this site, ripening was incredibly slow and the caterpillars took over towards the end, eating almost every last leaf on the vines. With no leaves, no photosynthesis occurs and the vine cannot move sugars into the berries so we had to rely on the slight raisining of the fruit or the loss of water to increase relative ripeness. Flavours ended up being pretty good though by the time we decided to pick, and in particular the tannins were very ripe and seeds nice and brown. Some lees contact to build texture helped this wine and the, peppery aromas that are characteristic of this vineyard remind me of some Rhone Valley wines I have tried. All in all this component of the wine shows red currants, raspberries and cherries, with some plum, cinnamon and black and white pepper. P.S. – There is a bit of hype around for this vineyard, it has a unique peppery character and Shiraz-friendly Ordovician soils and Organic Management to boot. Typical Analysis Harvest Date: 3/5/04 pH: 3.60 Baumé: 12.2 T.A.: 7.8 g/l The vintage is showing well now – the tannins are ripe but moderate and well balanced, there is some lovely background oak influence that does not dominate and the texture above all is velvety smooth. The alcohol is balanced and should help the wine stay balanced over the next 3 years or so, beyond which – who knows? Just enjoy!

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