January 3rd 2019

We’ve had a beautiful spring with warm days and cool evenings. After a dry start we had some great mid spring rain fall (more t han 60mls) which has been a welcome event after a very dry summer/winter 2019. The rainfall after fruit set has produced nice balanced growth with the growing tips of the vines still in accelerated growth. Fruit set in all varieties has been good with good average yields and healthy, balanced fruit on the vine.

The next few weeks are going to produce some hot days, up to 43C but the great canopy we have nurtured will be good shade and a heat deterrent – we should still be seeing the cool nights come through. We have limited water in our dams which may create a few issues later in Summer, particularly if the hotter weather persists. At this stage and if all goes to plan, we will handpick the first of our red grapes in the first week of March.

In other news, we’ve been working on a new project and are excited to announce that we will soon be making Sangiovese. We have grafted 3 small blocks, previously Malbec & Merlot to Sangiovese, and we have had a very successful uptake. You graft vines by cutting off the crown of the vine and inserting new vine buds into the trunk and effectively taping it securely. The new bud wood (or scion material) then unites with the trunk and grows together producing Sangiovese fruit on Merlot/Malbec Roots. Due to high winds through the vineyards over summer we have had some that were not well secured become damaged which we can rectify next year. We expect to get a crop from these newly grafted vines in 2020. We aim to make both Rosé and Red wine from these grapes.