A spring of sorts is emerging after a bitterly cold and wet winter. A rather nostalgic three months it has been.  If a little confronting, not unwelcome.  At this time of year we hold high hopes.  Vines pruned and prepared.  Old canes mulched back into the soil, new canes layered along the wire ready to shoot their new foliage, ready to set their crop for a harvest seven months away.  The journey towards Vintage 2013 begins.

Recently Bindi was involved in tastings in Brisbane and Sydney with nine other family vineyard/winery operations, each having more than twenty vintages released.  Small vineyards, hands-on wineries, operators working the same terroir into their third, fourth or fifth decades.  Several sites were even established over 150 years ago.  It was a lot of fun tasting wines going back to the ‘80s.  There exist a lot of opportunities in the wine world today.  There’s more diversity than ever before for maker, seller and consumer.  These tastings and conversations, of families discussing their land, their decades of learning and evolving in the winery, of relationships with customers enjoying the wines for twenty plus years were incredibly rewarding.  We were left with the thought ‘we should do it more often!’.  So, Melbourne will be next then we’ll revisit it all again in a couple more years.

We also have two upcoming Bindi events which may be of interest.   Bistro Vue in Melbourne will host a dinner on 16 October 2012 featuring Bindi sparkling (a blend of 1993 to 2000 with ten years on lees) and multiple vintages of the Original Vineyard Pinot Noir.  Please contact Bistro Vue directly on (03) 9691 3838.  And on 23 November 2012 The Dispensary Enoteca in Bendigo will host a 5 course degustation matched with Bindi wines.  Please contact them directly on (03) 5444 5885.

After a real sumer then a real autumn we are really having a proper winter! Cold, wet and windy in Gisborne was a norm that was disrupted by the decade long drought. This uncomfortable nostalgia is welcome for vine dormancy and soil moisture but makes for robust pruning conditions which ensure we draw upon the the very best thermal wear. With this a few things are certain; the job has to get done and every evening after pruning warmth derived from water, wood, food and wine is enjoyed for its elemental reviving gift.

The last of the 2011 wines are now bottled and starting to emerge from their subtle trauma. The wines of this vintage are really evolving beautifully and are such a joy for their seductive aromas and pure, intense, flowing palates. They certainly require another twelve months or so to really begin to show their truest form and will improve for many years onwards.

June 2012 release

We are currently releasing 2011 Bindi Composition Pinot Noir, 2011 Bindi Composition Chardonnay, 2011 Pyrette Heatcote Shiraz and a mixed six pack of Bindi Sparkling Museum Stock. To order, please click here.

A quick note on the just completed 2012 harvest and season. The spring of 2011 indicated we were in for a similar season to that that led up to the 2011 harvest; rain and humidity and very slow ripening. Things changed, however, and changed again and again. December saw cold, windy weather disrupt the flowering significantly. From late December to late February we received barely a drop of rain and had eight weeks of contrast to the start of the vines' season. Then, what was for many harvest interuppting, a deluge of 150mm of rain freshened the vines, pushed them through veraison and a stunning run of perfect autumnal weather ripened the very small crop. At this early stage, despite the meagre volume of wine, 2012 looks very exciting.

A quick note on the just completed 2012 harvest and season. The spring of 2011 indicated we were in for a similar season to that that led up to the 2011 harvest; rain and humidity and very slow ripening. Things changed, however, and changed again and again. December saw cold, windy weather disrupt the flowering significantly. From late December to late February we received barely a drop of rain and had eight weeks of contrast to the start of the vines' season. Then, what was for many harvest interuppting, a deluge of 150mm of rain freshened the vines, pushed them through veraison and a stunning run of perfect autumnal weather ripened the very small crop. At this early stage, despite the meagre volume of wine, 2012 looks very exciting.

We have had an eventful few weeks.

The white veil of netting covers the ripening fruit only to be disturbed by the fickle winds and willie willies that give the birds occasional access to what is rather a small crop. Harvesting the chardonnay and pinot noir appears to be about five weeks away (2011 was concluded April 25th, 2008 March 18th).

We have successfully bottled the 2011 Composition Chardonnay, 2011 Composition Pinot Noir and the 2011 Pyrette Heathcote Shiraz. The wines looked very fresh and intense prior to bottling and will now require four to six months to fully settle down and emerge again. The 2011 Quartz, 2011 Original Vineyard and 2011 Block 5 will be bottled in July.

The Pyrette fruit for 2012 was picked on the 21st of February and has just begun to ferment. Quite a bit of whole bunch fruit was added to the bottom of each open fermenter and the rest of the fruit de-stemmed on top. A little sulphur was added and thereafter it is up to the ambient/native yeast to ferment the sugar. This has taken five days to really get going and now we have raised caps/skins and fresh, bubbling shiraz ferments. The fruit this year is exceptionally balanced, fragrant, spicy and complex in red fruits. The potential alcohol is 13.5% and the acidities are very good.

After eight weeks of extremely dry weather we have had over 40mm of rain in the past 18 hours. With the temperature and humidity quite high it is a slight concern, but the rain is very welcome this far from harvest. We await some warm, even ripening weather.

The summer has finally emerged from another very wet spring. This growing season we have moved straight from a wet, warm spring to a cold, unstable early summer and now to the typical January weather we expect. Quite a change to last summer which had staggeringly high rainfall.

December, our important period requiring stable, warm weather for flowering, saw high winds, rain and cold snaps. Consequently, the crop level is quite reduced and our expectation is for a very moderate yield. Quality is, of course, our primary focus and we are hopeful of making some intense wine at low yields. We are looking at yields around three to four tonnes per hectare this year whereas our aim would be to crop around five tonnes per hectare.

We have recently racked and returned to barrel the 2011 wines post malo lactic and they are looking quite promising. It was a difficult year viticulture wise however the harvest, fermentations and barrel maturations have progressed very well. The chardonnays are mineral and intense with excellent length and balance. The pinot noirs are perfumed, spicy, textured and harmonious and will cellar very well. The Pyrette shiraz is deliciously mineral, earthy, complex, creamy and balanced.

We begin bottling some of the 2011s in late February and the remainder will be bottled in July.