Winter 2010 has rapidly decended into our laps as we count down to our winter Solstice which is now less than a month away (June 21). WHich really translates into winter has only just begun.

As we begin to enjoy winter, we are now rapidly reviewing our young 2010 wines as well as planning for the remainder of the year. The second half of 2010 will fly by as we prune vines, work the soils, get our ‘10 Riesling and Arneis ready for bottling in August and get ready for spring.

I am heading off to the UK in a couple of weeks to visit our sommelier friends in London which is always good fun as well as hard work. This trip will conclude with some days in Austria checking on the 2009 Blaufrankisch as well as continuing my search for large old oak.

Magnum Offer for 2010 pinot

For the first time, we are taking requests for Magnums of the yet to be bottled stunning 2010 pinots. If you are interested in putting your name down in advance for magnums, we can bottle these for you to order. Please contact me directly on mac@macforbes.com and as we get closer to bottling in January, I will be in touch to confirm which wines you are after.

Thanks and see you soon.

Mac

In the midst of all this Riesling harvesting, we are really excited to be hosting for about 10 days Lance and Isabelle Foyster of Clark Foyster Wines in the UK along with their gorgeous girls Yasmin and Ines. So far they have experienced the great ocean road and today they explored Mornington.

Tomorrow begins the work for them all. Yarra Valley – wine, the sanctuary and a tasty dinner at Bella Vedere. I am sure they will cope just fine.

Isabelle, Lance, Yasmin, Ines and Nina...

Holy Moly! Guess where I am now? Sitting at Launceston airport in Tassie. Qantas have cancelled my flight and I am going to be delayed by about 6 hours. BUT i couldn’t be happier.

What a topsy turvy few weeks we have had. We witnessed our riesling vineyard explode after the rain with berries splitting and botrytis proliferating.
Then Dylan and I headed to Portland to check out a vineyard which was a total waste of time and effort.

But now we are back on track. This morning i flew down here to check out a fantastic vineyard. And we are now going to have some very exciting fruit to work with for vintage 2010. Honestly, when riesling is on song, it is hard to beat.

Picking is scheduled for next Thursday.

Wow… we are nearly there and with only two picks to go!

Tomorrow we are picking the key to the Hugh Bordeaux blend. Tomorrow we will pick about 3 Tonnes of Cabernet Sauvignon and a couple hundred Kilo of Petit Verdot. We can’t wait and after the last few days of 28-30 degrees and cooler nights we think its looking pretty good….

Hi again…

Feb 22 and we are marching to the beat of minimum sleep, hard work and great aromas as the ferments engulf the winery.

So far we have picked all lower yarra pinot and the woori chard which looks stunning. Still on the vine is upper yarra pinot and the late varieties including riesling (Strathbogies), Syrah (Gruyere) and the Cabernets. We have had some great weather for ripening and envisage a busy couple of weeks ahead.

We are picking today our 1 Tonne parcel off one acre of Woori Yallock. This will be our first chance to really evaluate low cropping on this vineyard so we are all dropping what we are doing to head out for a few hours to do a slow and selective pick.

Alan and JK have stepped up to the demands with ease while Manu (and Elodie) who have arrived from the UK via France has quickly come to grips with vintage life.

Also attached is a photo of one of our Blaufrankisch vines… very exciting to actually see this Austrian vine handling our summer. Grafting commencing at the end of 2010.

Enjoy Autumn everyone….And when i get back on here we will hopefully be reporting that all pinot and chardonnay is in and looking good.

Mac