The past 6 weeks have been a hectic rollercoaster of picking and processing, but we are pleased to say that almost all 36 hectares worth of grapes and juice are now safely in the winery at Sainte Rose being carefully monitored through primary fermentation! What is left is a few rows of our older block of Roussanne, which we have left on the vine to concentrate in flavour and pick up some noble rot, with a view to making a limited edition late harvest sweet wine!

It has been a strange harvest, with periods of intense activity interspersed with nervous weather watching as a number of storms blew through the region. In our particular area, none of the storms were as violent or wet as predicted by the forecasters and had no adverse effects on fruit quality. They did however provide a bit of respite from the long hours of picking and processing in order to manage the increasing workload in the winery.

The fruit and subsequent juice quality has been excellent this year with clean, healthy fruit, good yields and fantastic flavours. The vinification work is ongoing in the winery, but it is looking like a very good year!