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.

The vines are exiting their winter dormancy and we are joining them at the beginning of a new season's journey. The story of the 2012 season begins to be written.

The pruning was successfully completed in good time and the new canes wrapped down well before any sign of bud swell. Despite the difficulties of last season's challenging humid conditions the vines had good mature wood to use for this season's canes and we expect a consistent budburst. We have aerated the vineyard several times to open up the soil for air and moisture penetration and to alleviate the problem of compaction from using the tractor on saturated soils. This method creates punctures about 120mm deep in the mid row, about 250mm from the base of the vine, and three passes gives a very good coverage. Some superficial roots are cut and the structure of the soil is improved.

The 2011 vintage wines remain on heavy yeast lees in barrel and are at varying stages in regard to the completion of malo-lactic. The wines are looking very good and have excellent intensity and balance. It is, of course, early days for the 2011s but it is at least a very successful vintage which exhibits excellent fruit purity, intensity and balance. We must wait until the end of Spring and for the malos to be completed. The best indication will come post racking when the wines are taken off lees from barrel and returned to the cleaned barrels as they always look freshened up and more complete.

We are now releasing the last of the 2010s. The wines are showing quite well but are clearly very young and un-evolved. I expect the release to sell out rather quickly and apologise if we are unable to fulfill all orders satisfactorily. The reality is we have not increased our production while we have seen a large increase in our customer base.

Thank you for using our website and your interest in our wines.

Harvest 2011

Amongst ourselves, and to some winemaking colleagues, we said we might not make it. Many didn't make it this year. There were a myriad of different challenges and anxieties to overcome and the feeling from November to April was that at any point the crop could be lost. This season more than any other we were ever focused and attentive to what the vineyard needed in response to the incredible weather conditions.

For eight years now we have not used any systemic fungicides. It is now six years since we have applied systemic/chemical sprays for weeds - now we use straw mulch and slashing. We do not use systemic applications to eradicate pests. Our focus has been to promote life forces rather than to apply death to control our vineyard environment. This year we held firm to this regime with the exception of two systemic fungicide applications, the first in eight years, to the foliage in December. There was a temptation to used anti botrytis fungal sprays on the ripening fruit but we had done so much work to have an open, clean, airy canopy we felt more comfortable to take the risk than spray. Also, we dropped 30% of the overall crop on the ground before veraison/ripening as we didn't want fruit on small shoots or in clumps where fruit ripening rates would be compromised and disease would be more likely to develop with bunches touching one another. Also, a larger crop would have required another week to 10 days of ripening and this was clearly not the season to risk exposing the fruit to extra adverse weather events.

As a reward for the hard work April provided some important warm, sunny classic autumnal weather and the flavours and sugars developed beautifully. The pickers were very diligent in removing any fruit not in optimal condition and the quality of the grapes arriving at the winery was quite remarkable. All the pinot noir has been pressed out post fermentation and is resting in barrel. There are still some barrels of chardonnay fermenting. Overall, the volume of wine is very reasonable (30 tonnes from 16 acres/6 hectares) and, whilst clearly early days, the style of the wines looks to be intense and balanced. For this stage the wines are representative of their site and usual style.