Barrel samples are regularly evaluated
We are a small winery and vineyard in the Mount Lofty Ranges high on the hill on the scenic route between One Tree Hill and Gawler, overlooking the Barossa Valley to the north east, and Adelaide plains to the north and west. We have owned our small property of 22 acres since 1983. The lifestyle of being awaken at dawn by a chorus of lorikeets, magpies and kookaburras is wonderful, although the effort required to reduce the risk of bushfires is considerable, of our 22 acres only about 4 are gentle undulating slopes suitable for vines. In 2000 we planted 3000 Merlot vines and in 2005 we planted1000 Petitt Verdot vines. Our first vintage, 2003 Merlot, filled a barrique (225ltr).Didn’t take long to drink this. Since then the volume at vintage has increased to about 2000 litres of merlot and 600 litres of petitt verdot.
After spending many mind boggling hours on a tractor going round and round, slashing between the vines you need a drink of good wine to convince yourself that all this work is worth the effort.
When writing or talking about wine, winemakers tend to talk in terms they think everyone who drinks wine understands, ta, ph, baume, racking, must, fining, ullage, cap, malo and a 300 ltr barrels in wine maker speak is a hogshead. I've put a simple explanation after some of these other terms where they occur on this website. For the benefit of those people who love wine but perhaps didn’t know or were embarrassed to ask.