Already many of our wineries are picking the 2012 vintage. And it looks like a beauty! Some, Wild Duck Creek Estate included, already have quite a bit of wine in fermenters. It's a busy time of the year in Southern hemisphere wineries - in the space of just a few weeks the entire year's fruit has to be picked, crushed and de-stemmed, pumped into fermenters and plunged several times a day (and night!), then pressed and put away into barrels for maturation. And that makes it sound easy!
There's not just physical work, though there's plenty of that - the management of the must (acids, temperature, various yeasts, enzymes, preservatives and so on) requires enormous understanding of what you've got in the grape, what you're trying to do with it, and how you're going to get it there. There won't be much sleep by winemakers for a few weeks!
Over the coming weeks we will try to get a vintage report from as many of our wineries as possible, and publish it here. So check back every now and then. It should be instructive.
There's not just physical work, though there's plenty of that - the management of the must (acids, temperature, various yeasts, enzymes, preservatives and so on) requires enormous understanding of what you've got in the grape, what you're trying to do with it, and how you're going to get it there. There won't be much sleep by winemakers for a few weeks!
Over the coming weeks we will try to get a vintage report from as many of our wineries as possible, and publish it here. So check back every now and then. It should be instructive.
RSS Feed