St. Andrews Shiraz and barrel fermentation
Thu, 23 August 2012
Our Chief Winemaker, Adam Eggins started experimenting with open barrel fermentation technique for the St. Andrews Shiraz from the 2006 vintage. In his opinion, the earlier in a wine’s life you introduce high quality wood, the better. The natural tannins in the wood of the oak barrels do a number of amazing things for the [...]
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Vintage 2012 – Wrap Up Report
Tue, 08 May 2012
It’s hard to believe but we have just finished our 40th vintage at our winery in the Clare Valley, South Australia. We’re all so proud of the fact that the world has continued to enjoy our wines for so long! Vintage officially commenced on the 2nd of February with the harvesting of the delightfully aromatic [...]
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Vintage 2012 – Progress Report
Fri, 09 March 2012
The weather conditions in the lead up to harvest have been ideal and we have all been enjoying the return to relative normalcy after what we experienced last year! Winter rainfall has been in line with the long term averages and consequently soil moisture levels are good. The vines are looking fantastic with healthy green [...]
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Alternative Varieties – The New Frontier?
Tue, 08 November 2011
Whilst monitoring the fruit development in the vineyard and all the preparation work for the coming vintage is the main focus of everyone at the winery, later in November a small contingent from our team will also be attending an Australian Wine Research Institute workshop held in the Clare Valley that covers the topic of [...]
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Spring Frost 2011
Wed, 19 October 2011
Throughout spring, grape growers nervously monitor weather conditions; searching for any sign of danger from their common enemy; the spring frost. Frosts not only pose a risk to the current season’s crop, but due to the perennial nature of grapevines, can also influence the productivity of vines for several seasons into the future! You may [...]
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Budburst and Spring Planting 2011
Mon, 19 September 2011
This month in the Clare Valley, the arrival of spring has inspired all manner of activity about the winery and vineyards. In the winery, installation of the new refrigeration plant is well underway and the general commotion that accompanies construction will continue until the plant is commissioned in time for vintage 2012. This exciting work [...]
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Vintage Report 2011
Fri, 26 August 2011
Harvest 2011 Early on, the 2010 growing season was shaping up to be one of our best seasons. Whilst June and July rainfall was below the long term averages, we received better than average rainfall in August and then in September there were extensive falls with the Wakefield River breaching its banks and flooding the [...]
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Accolades roll in from overseas for our Aussie Wines
Thu, 28 July 2011
The last few months have been a whirlwind when it comes to wine show awards. Late in May we were informed that our wines had done extremely well in New York at the Ultimate Wine Challenge. Our St Andrews Shiraz 2006, (awarded 93 points) took out the Chairman’s Trophy for “Best Shiraz/Syrah – World’ – quite [...]
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Pruning in the vineyard
Wed, 15 June 2011
With vintage 2011 well and truly over, the next phase of seasonal work at the winery commences in earnest – pruning. It takes almost 4 months to hand-prune all of the vines on our Clare Valley estate. The buds that will grow into the crop for our 2012 harvest began forming in November and December [...]
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Vintage 2011 – Wrap Up report
Tue, 17 May 2011
As vintage 2011 draws to a close, we can take a deep breath and reflect upon what many will term a very difficult and at times stressful period. With rain being the main issue (and the associated diseases that occur in those humid conditions) and the corresponding protracted ripening period, this will certainly be a [...]
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