Vintage is nearly done and dusted for another year, we have a small batch of dessert Riesling fermenting away at the moment but everything else is safely tucked away in barrel, tank and bottle on the journey to you. To celebrate my birthday we took the family to FermentAsian the brilliant eatery in Tanunda and Grant the sommelier there said “this must be a cruisey vintage you’re the 3rd winemaker we’ve had in here this week” and that really was the story of the vintage. Lighter crops took the pressure off of ferment space and the quality was so high that the wines seemed to make themselves. All this pleasure can’t come without some pain and as growers we certainly felt some of it, as an example our Eden Valley Cabernet vineyard yielded 45 tonnes last year up on an average of around 30. This year we picked 8 tonnes, I haven’t had the courage to tell the bank manager yet. So after our bumper crop last year the vines seemed to want to take a year off, low crops do not automatically mean high quality but this year everything looks exceptional, whites and reds with great flavour intensity and beautiful balance have been a joy to behold. I’m sure I’m not the only winemaker around the traps wearing a smug little smile when tasting through barrels and tanks.

For more of my ramblings take a look at his great blog. Dedicated to wineries that are working at being earth friendly it is really well put together and interesting. http://earthwine.wordpress.com/

Max Allen gave our 2011 Joven a nice plug in this month’s edition of Gourmet Traveller magazine in the Top Drops column he wrote” This is a beautifully boisterous Barossa blend of Tempranillo, Grenache, Mataro and bastardo (a Portuguese port grape), with heaps of juicy fruit laid on top of earthy dried herbs.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Current release wines are;

2011 EV Riesling, BV Riesling, Semillon $18, Joven $20

2006 EV Riesling aged release $25

2009 EV Red Blend and Shiraz $28

2010 EV Cabernet $28

Our wine club is a great way to keep your cellar stocked with smallfry at very keen prices as well as getting hold of museum wines and some small batch stuff that doesn’t necessarily see the light of day. You can sign up for 6 or 12 pack deliveries on a quarterly, 6 monthly or annual basis, straight or mixed, whatever suits you. As an incentive to join up this month we will increase your first delivery by an extra bottle if a 6 pack and an extra 2 bottles if 12 pack on top of our already heavily discounted prices.

Cheers
Wayne