Winemaker
With the year almost half way through it is nearly time to plan for our next vintage.
2010 was a very hot year for us with heatwave conditions beginning early in December and continuing on into February. This resulted in a lot of sunburnt fruit which had an impact on quality - the white juice being somewhat brown and the consequent wine a little darker in colour than I would have liked.
We only picked Chardonnay leaving Verdelho, Semillon and Chenin Blanc on the vines. With the reds we picked some Cabernet, Merlot, Sangiovese and Temperanillo leaving Malbec and Shiraz on the vines. We also picked some Grenache for a light sparkling pink. The reds are all now in barrel and have been topped up and sulphured.
We are now into pruning, which will take three months. Our vines are ‘spur’ pruned so we have a contractor barrel pruner come through to cut the canes shorter which make pruning much easier and quicker.
The vineyard has been prepared to plant a cover crop of clover and lupins but heavy rain has delayed getting these planted. We like to operate the vineyard as close as possible to organic principles.
We have been busy bottling Sparkling Chardonnay Brut, a 2006 Merlot and a 2006 Shiraz [about 3000 bottles of each and set to get labels printed and then onto some more bottling. The next project is to bottle the Pink Sparkling – which I have not named yet!
At RiverBank we have shifted over completely to screw caps. This gives better quality wines with no apparent negative effects. We are also using light weight glass bottles. Both are better for the environment, are used friendly and cost less.
Let’s hope we continue to get heaps of rain. Cheers!!
