Greetings friends!
We hope everyone is doing well and holding on despite what the world keeps throwing at us. Hopefully our little wines can bring you all some joy this spring!
Some vineyards news - although all the vineyards we work with are managed organically, we are inching towards having them certified, for the sake of transparency. Ernst's vineyard in Sellicks Hill is certified "in conversion", and the upcoming vintage 2023 will be fully NASAA certified. We've started working with another Chardonnay vineyard in Forreston, Adelaide Hills, which is showing a great promise. We can't wait to share the resulting wines with you! And the Sparrows vineyard from Mt. Torrens is as beautiful as ever!
Winemaking - we're striving to keep it simple, as always. Walking the narrow line of fun and fine. Or, precise but still fun. Boy is that narrow!
2022 vintage wasn't as plentiful as 2021, so there is a bit less wine to go around, but, as always, we will make every effort to look after everyone. Alex will be showing wine in Adelaide and Melbourne - get in touch if you'd like him to swing past and pour you a taste!
There will be trade tastings!
SA: Monday, 7/11 (TODAY!) 3-6pm Jauma farm, along with a few more locals.
Melbourne: Tuesday, 8/11 (TOMORROW!) 12:30-2:30pm Public Wine Shop, Fitzroy, along with our soulmate Scintilla Wines! Come get some spritz in Fitz.
All details are <<here>>.
As always, thanks so much for the support!
With love,
Alex & Galit
End of Vintage 2022 and New wines!
Hello friends,
Where do we start? Vintage 2022 is done and dusted. It was a good one with low yield but great quality all across. The Pét-nats are in bottle, the rest in barrels and it's looking very promising. We have started a new relationship with an amazing vineyard in Forreston where we sourced Chardonnay (and hopefully more things in the future!) from.
Also (drum roll!!) Ernst’s vineyard in Sellicks Hill is now certified organic “in conversion”!
Although all of the grapes we turn into wine are grown organically, we believe that certification provides more transparency and are very excited about moving forward with this certification.
We are beyond grateful to Ernst for his hard work and love he puts in the vineyard as well as for all our growers. They are all a fantastic bunch we love dearly.
We made a bit less wine in 2022, to maintain sanity. Easier said than done!
Our BFF James, AKA Scintilla Wines, now operates from his own property in Basket Range. We are excited for him beyond words, but we miss the company greatly (insert crying face). We're so happy to still have our little collab Eau d’Amis going though to make sure we get to see each other! (see below).
Massive thanks to Andy, Joe, Fabio, and Marcell for the help this vintage, we couldn't have done it without you!
And now, please welcome our new wines for Autumn 2022!
Spring 2021 Wines
Hello friends,
What a vintage it was. What a year. Another roller coaster, quite trying for most. Hopefully, we are slowly getting out of the woods. In the meantime, trying to celebrate what we can!
As said, what a vintage! Finally, a very good crop year, which allowed us to make a bit more wine this time around! Quality didn’t disappoint, either. In fact, we couldn’t be happier with how the wines turned out. We were able to keep the alcohols low, with most wines being in the 10’s and the 11’s %ABV and still are full of flavour, which is what we strive for.
There is a new cuvée this vintage - Hearts will Repair, a couple of old ones that made a comeback, as well as all the usual spring suspects and 3 Pét Nats, all disgorged.
We’re so happy to report that finally, quantities are more generous with a bit more wine than usual this year which is fantastic!
In the other news, we’ve started the organic certification process for Ernst’s Sellicks Hill vineyard, and are hoping to be able to do the same with all the other vineyards eventually, one step at a time.
Hope everyone is keeping well and enjoying the warmer weather outside!
Have a look at the new wines here >>>>
Big love,
Alex&Galit
Photo: Ben Macmahon
Autumn 2021 Wines
Hello friends!
It's our favourite time of the year again! Vintage is done (phew), 2021 Pét-Nat is in bottle awaiting being disgorged, and we're almost ready to finally have a breather, forage mushrooms, enjoy the yellow-and-red scenery and dream a bit. And reflect - there's a lot to do on.
But before we do, there is wine that has been waiting patiently for its time, and the time has come. We have 6 wintery cuvées, ranging between very white and very red. A lot has happened since V2020, but its low yields are still with us, affecting the cuvées' sizes. Still, we've managed to put together 2 reasonably plentiful Chardonnay cuvées and one Viognier. The Shiraz and the Pinot are quite tiny.
No Sunshine on My Skin in this release, but what came in its place is worth a look!
Check out the full release here.
Thank you so much for everyone's support!! It means the world to us.
Big love,
Alex & Galit xo
Autumn Release 2020
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