The 2011 vintage is looking really interesting. I will admit that we were trepidations about this vintage, since it was the driest winter on record. The humid weather in January & February was unusual and also that the temperature didn’t get above 39C, though it was consistently very warm, though there were no disease or heat stress issues.
All our fruit is hand-picked, we started with the Sparkling base on Sunday 15 Jan and then progressed through to various batches of chardonnay, from different areas around the vineyard and the Verdelho on Australia Day (check out the video on our Facebook page.)
The Verdelho looked very passionfruity with a lovely limey finish, it may be a bit lighter than the last couple of years, more like the 2008.
The red grapes matured closer to the average time, producing good colour and flavour.
The Merlot was the first red to ripen, had very small berries and a very low yield which resulted in exceptional colour and concentration.
Conditions were optimum for full bodied fruit and the Shiraz looks consistent with the typical (i.e. excellent) quality of Upper Reach shiraz.
This year the new Petit Verdot block has produced a sufficient quantity of fruit to make a decent batch of wine (though we will release a very small quantity from 2009 in Winter 2011).
We’ve bought in some Grenache from 50 year old Swan Valley unirrigated vines, this is a first for us and our intention is to blend it with shiraz for our Gig wine. The Tempranillo also looked excellent, there were great smells coming off the ferment.