One of the most enjoyable times in the winemaking process is the final blending. We’re right in the middle of that time now with all the 2015 Shiraz being removed from barrel and blended to their final destination wines over the next few weeks.
The reason this process is so enjoyable? Well, many may think it’s down to the frequent tasting of individual barrels, up to 70 a day! Certainly that’s good fun and a great opportunity to recap on the tastings throughout the year to see how the oak is finally marrying with the fruit on numerous parcels. But the real joy of the process is the magic of blending. Tinkering about with different combinations of barrels then 2% of this parcel or 1% of that parcel I’m always amazed by the surprising positive and negative effects that come about. I may have a couple of parcels that I love and think they would look great together – sometimes it works beautifully as planned but sometimes it just falls flat. Equally, a quick blend that may be a bit of a ‘hit and hope’ turns out to absolutely sing and suddenly everything’s easy!
I guess this is where the science of winemaking gives way to the craft. It’s not maths at this stage, 2+2 could equal 3 or it could equal 7, it’s a slow and deliberate process of trials (and errors!) with the hope of a beautiful end result.
Cheers, Alex
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We’ve had some good success with our wines at various shows over the years and it’s always nice to receive accolades. With some wines though it’s particularly rewarding. One example is our 2013 Limited Release Lynedoch which has recently won the Top 100/Blue Gold award at the Sydney International Wine Competition.
The reason I’m so pleased about this is twofold; firstly, this competition is judged with food, so the judges taste all the wines entered and the top 20% are taken to the next stage where they are judged alongside food. This is a big logistical job but what a great idea to ascertain the quality of a wine in its appropriate setting! The second reason this award is so pleasing is that it shows the rewards of patience! As our top Bordeaux blend (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot) this wine is a pretty serious one and needs time in bottle to develop and show its true potential, it’s just starting to hit it’s straps now and we’re pleased to see that development being recognised.
I spent 10 years living in Sydney and it’s always nice to go back for a visit to such a beautiful and vibrant city. I was there recently for a sales trip to meet with our distributors and some independent bottle shops and on-premise customers. I have to say the trip was a huge success, we had some great feedback on the wines and managed to make some nice sales but equally important for me was the chance to meet some incredible people – all wine nuts, passionate about the products they sell. These guys know what they like, they know what their customers will like and they’re not afraid to let suppliers like us know about it! That sort of honesty, intelligence and passion is always a good thing in this game! Luckily, they all liked Hemera Estate!
So for those of you in Sydney or anywhere in this great land, please support your local independent bottle shop, chances are they’ll get to know your tastes and be a source of great new discoveries over time. Don’t be afraid to ask them to stock Hemera Estate if they don’t already do so either – they need customer feedback and they enjoy new discoveries too!
Cheers, Alex
The Barossa Valley is known as red wine country and for good reason and
we’re rightly proud of the pleasure our reds give to people everywhere. But
we are also proud of the white wines that we produce. Look back in the
history books just a generation or so and you will see that the Barossa was
all about white wines, making top class Rieslings, Semillons and
Chardonnays. We still do all that but we’re now seeing some new varieties
in the mix with exotic names like Vermentino, Fiano, Rousanne and Marsanne
coming to the fore.
We planted Marsanne on our vineyard in 2013 and harvested our first crop
from it this year. We were super excited and the young vines did a grand
job producing a small but powerfully aromatic and complex crop of grapes.
We decided to put it through our little basket press in order to extract
only the cleanest, softest free run juice. This juice was then fermented in
3 barrels of seasoned French oak and 1 new French barrel. This gave a
lovely, fresh and vibrant wine which was then lees stirred for 6 months to
give some flesh and body to the palate. We bottled the resulting wine last
month and are loving the results. As the warm weather finally looks like it
will chase away the rain I’m certainly looking forward to a chilled glass or
two of 2016 Basket Press Marsanne to end the day(s)!
Cheers, Alex
The Barossa Wine Show is on this week and that makes for a fun week in the Barossa for all the wine geeks. It also makes for a very busy week if you’re part of the organising committee! The judging started on Monday with the judges tasting over 700 different wines across three different panels. It’s a big logistical task to get all the wines ready, poured and cleaned up for each tasting panel and thanks to a small army of volunteers this goes off without a hitch (aside from a few broken glasses!). Thursday night is the big Presentation Dinner when we all get to dress up and see who won the major trophies whilst sampling the gold and trophy winning wines – usually a pretty good night!
I’m off to get suited and booted, I look forward to raising a glass of the winning Grenache tonight on this International Grenache Day!
Cheers, Alex
Wow, we’ve had some beautiful weather this week, sunny blue skies with warm temperatures in the early 20s, perfect springtime weather. People around the Valley have been getting excited about warmer times, barbies etc and all has been good. Today, however, more rain and a bitterly cold southerly have somewhat dampened everyone’s enthusiasm, not quite spring yet! The vines of course were not so easily fooled. They are still happily lying in dormancy, waiting for our average temperatures to rise for a sustained period when they will respond by bursting the buds all along the cordons and pushing new life into the warm air. The sap is already rising a little so it shouldn’t be too long now but we aren’t in a rush, a later budburst means later harvest and, all things being normal (a phrase which is almost meaningless in the world of farming!), grapes that ripen fully and slowly in cooler autumn temperatures.
We shall see!
Cheers, Alex
For those of us who work with Mother Nature the weather is something of a talking point. Not just because it affects sports matches, barbeques and family outings but because it can have a massive impact on what we do every day for our jobs. So if you happen to be in the Barossa at the moment or in the next couple of weeks (and if you are, please drop by and say ‘hello’) then you may notice a lot of relaxed and happy grapegrowers around. There is one simple reason for this: rain. We have had over 380mm so far this year which is getting close to our annual average and there are predictions of more to come in Spring. Fabulous!
Why? Well, winter rainfall is one of the critical factors in generating good canopies on the vines in the growing season. Those good canopies born of soggy winter conditions paradoxically will protect the vine and the grapes from the inevitable heat and sun of January and February. So that means better crop yields, balanced ripening and high quality fruit. And that is a combination that makes grapegrowers and winemakers very happy!
Cheers, Alex
It’s been a long Indian summer in the Barossa recently but that all came to an abrupt end last week as the heavens opened and the mercury dropped. We had over 60mm of rainfall on our property which has been great, the dam is starting to fill back up after serving us well over Summer and the vines are loving it. In fact, they’re so happy they all have lovely new green leaves on them! This shows good vine health but is causing a bit of a delay in pruning as we like to wait for the sap to descend back into the trunk and roots and the vine to go dormant before we start to prune.
This cold weather will send the right signals to the vines and we expect to see those leaves drop in the next couple of weeks and the guys can get out there and start snipping. It’s cold and hard work but there’s nothing quite like the sight of a neat, beautifully pruned vineyard to let you know Winter is here!
Cheers, Alex
Greetings from the London International Wine Fair! No sooner has vintage finished than it’s time to meet customers old and new and discuss potential export opportunities. I’d say there’s no rest for the wicked but a trip to London is always fun no matter how brief and how much work is involved!
We’ve been at the show for 3 solid, busy days this week and it’s been a great success, meeting with wine buyers, Masters of Wine, Sommeliers, importers, retailers and lots of other winemakers is a great opportunity. Our wines have gone down incredibly well in London with plenty of keen tasters asking where they could buy them. Our Shiraz and Cab Sav were eternal favourites but really pleasing was how excited everyone was about our 2013 Old Vine Grenache. After getting 95 points from Huon Hooke last week this was probably the star of the Fair for us and just goes to show that Barossa Grenache deserves a place at the top table of world wine. Can’t wait to make more noise about Grenache later in the year when we’ll be celebrating International Grenache Day.
A couple of photos show the scale of the event, our stand was small but effective, clearly the English sparkling wine producer Nyetimber has a slightly bigger budget – their double decker bus stand was amazing!
Time to board the plane back home, be great to get back.
Cheers, Alex
