We have finally reached the end of the 2011 harvest……. for now. I think it’s fair to say that this year’s campaign has not been the easiest, stopping and starting on a few occasions, but the reason for stopping now, with some grapes still on the vine, is quite different. This time it’s more a question of maturity (and I don’t mean my own!). We have one large block of fruit that is still improving in this weeks warm weather, and so, as always, we have decided to do what’s best to improve quality. Quite frankly, it’s a bit of a pain, as we can’t really start any deep cleaning in the cellar, but we are convinced that, despite a bit of inconvenience, our decision will ultimately benefit the finished wine.

On the positive side our tight organisation and the experience of our staff  helped keep our grapes flowing through the cellar in a very timely and efficient manner. Over the entire 7 days of picking there were only one or two minor glitches in our equipment, but thankfully these were all resolved without any real delay. In fact I should mention that, owing to the reduced time that we used during the pressing process, the whole cycle was speeded up considerably, and on the last couple nights we were able to finish much earlier than usual. I’m not suggesting for a moment that we will retain this new shortened timing in the future, but we will be looking closely at the results, and studying the benefits before we pass judgement. With every vintage that passes we continue to learn and improve both our efficiency and wine making techniques, noting minor changes that we will incorporate in the future. We never rest on our laurels!

Now that the work has finished outside, we now move indoors to start our strictly controlled wine making.

We have finally reached the end of the 2011 harvest……. for now. I think it’s fair to say that this year’s campaign has not been the easiest, stopping and starting on a few occasions, but the reason for stopping now, with some grapes still on the vine, is quite different. This time it’s more a question of maturity (and I don’t mean my own!). We have one large block of fruit that is still improving in this weeks warm weather, and so, as always, we have decided to do what’s best to improve quality. Quite frankly, it’s a bit of a pain, as we can’t really start any deep cleaning in the cellar, but we are convinced that, despite a bit of inconvenience, our decision will ultimately benefit the finished wine.

On the positive side our tight organisation and the experience of our staff  helped keep our grapes flowing through the cellar in a very timely and efficient manner. Over the entire 7 days of picking there were only one or two minor glitches in our equipment, but thankfully these were all resolved without any real delay. In fact I should mention that, owing to the reduced time that we used during the pressing process, the whole cycle was speeded up considerably, and on the last couple nights we were able to finish much earlier than usual. I’m not suggesting for a moment that we will retain this new shortened timing in the future, but we will be looking closely at the results, and studying the benefits before we pass judgement. With every vintage that passes we continue to learn and improve both our efficiency and wine making techniques, noting minor changes that we will incorporate in the future. We never rest on our laurels!

Now that the work has finished outside, we now move indoors to start our strictly controlled wine making.