Hello friends,
What a time to be alive.
We hope everyone is well and you are all keeping firstly healthy and not less importantly - sane and smiling during you-know-what. What a crazy ride 2020 is shaping to be.
We started the year with what we thought would be an unforgettable season of fires only to proceed into the total chaos of a new pandemic.
As there is so much going on, it's really hard to know where to begin, or how to proceed.
Vintage for us, like to many others around us and all over Australia, has been challenging. For those who've read our newsletter from Autumn 2019, you might recall we called the previous vintage "character building".
What should we call this one? Our adjectives game is really not up to the current stream of events...
We are definitely among the very lucky ones - our house was far from the fires and all of the vineyards we work with remain mainly intact and mostly healthy.
We had to make some adjustments to our vintage plans as the yields were very low comparing to what we'd wished for but we are very grateful for all the fruit we did manage to get and the very hard work put into the vineyards by the growers.
The combination of low crops to begin with and the fires we've had made it a very low-yielding one. On top of that, the grape ripening pattern was unlike anything we've ever seen, with unprecedented acidity. We expect (cross our fingers for) some of the acid to precipitate in barrels over the winter and some to soften as a result of malolactic fermentation, but it does look unusually acidic at the moment.
Not all is sour though! We are also immensely lucky to be surrounded by the best bunch of people who make everything sweeter. First and foremost is James Madden of Scintilla Wines who is an endless source of support, fun and beer. You are the absolute best!! 💖. Also, the invaluable help from Howard, Nikki and Chris “The Muscles” Loth, who all came to help James but found themselves helping us and listening to Alex’s awkward jokes, made the vintage a lot easier than it would have been otherwise. We love you guys! SMOOCH!
Now that Vintage 2020 is behind us, 2020 pet nats are already in bottle, waiting to fizz up and be subsequently disgorged, it's time to let the last of 2019 wines out. 6 wines from Vintage 2019 are ready just when, coincidentally, we're starting to see the light in the end of the tunnel, and could potentially raise a glass to that! And with that, please welcome our 2019 Autumn release wines!
Stay safe,
Big hugs,
Alex&Galit