As promised, here is the first harvest update.  This one is from Sam Miranda in the King Valley (Victoria):
    "We managed to finish all of our whites before that big rain event and they look fantastic, quite bright with great natural acidity.
    "Reds are still looking good - they handled the rain but just need some time to regain the flavours and ripen a bit more.  Our Pinot Grigio has finished ferment and we will leave on lees for a few months so should be ready to go by August or September.
    "Also, we are bottling the 2010 Tempranillo next month, now that it has completed its maturation and oak treatment.  We should be ready to release it not long after that."
                                                                                            - Sam Miranda Wines, King Valley

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.