It all started well, we got the whites off and some pinot noir.... that's where the good news ends. Mother Nature gave us a lovely bit of rain at Christmas. That rain dispersed mildew spores over the grapes. That was ok, until we also had rain in February. This allowed the spores to take hold in the bunches and cause rot to begin. We therefore needed to get the grapes off as soon as possible. However, more rain in March meant the sugar levels - and hence ripeness - dropped and we also couldn't get the harvester into the vineyard to get the grapes off... Now the vines are so stressed they are dropping their leaves, hence they wont produce any more sugar and we wont get the grapes any riper.
Also the rain has meant we cant get the bottling truck into the winery, so haven't been able to bottle our wines. This is also stressful as we don't have a 2006 red - wasn't up to scratch so Dad had the wine makers trip it down the drain, we now make them on site so hopefully this wont happen again, anyway we need to bottle the 2007. Normally we like the reds to be in bottle for 2-3 years. At the rate I am currently selling the wine, the 2007 will only have 6 months in bottle... I think I need to take a holiday and let sales slow down for 6 months of so....
We also look like we have lost 60-75% of the grape that goes into the red and rose.... bugger. Hopefully we can still get some of it off. No more rain, please!
My house is feeling a little like a hotel at the moment, I have had 4 strange guys staying with me over the last few weeks. They are the harvester drivers and tend to sleep during the day. Its all a little odd living with strangers. Especially when one decided he didn't like the way I had things set up and decided to change it around when I was in Melbourne!
Vintage has been an exhausting time for me, but not in the normal way. As Dec/Jan is a quiet time for sales - sommeliers are too busy to see me, so it all gets very busy in Feb/March. In the last 2 weeks I have spent 45 hours driving long distances. I don't count anything under 1 hour - of which significant time is spent driving around. I have been to Sydney 3 times, Canberra twice and Melbourne once. I am so glad to be spending the next week on the vineyard. I need to catch up on my sleep.
On a happy note, the peacocks are still hanging around and I think the peahen is sitting on some eggs, I may have some baby peacocks in two weeks!
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