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In the Winery

Happenings & news from All Saints and St Leonards

 Thurs 30 July

James Halliday's 2011 Wine Companion has been released this week.

All Saints has been awarded 5 red stars for the third year in a row and St Leonards has been awarded 4 stars.  Many of our wines have received fantastic reviews including All Saints Alias II and St Leonards Wahgunyah Shiraz. We are all very proud of this huge honour. www.winecompanion.com.au
Thurs 13 May Vineyard update: Winter is setting in with a -3 degree morning in the vineyard already. The leaves have turned yellow and red and have almost all fallen. Crops will be sown between the rows for mulching under the vines later in the year. Pruning will start soon. Nick Brown
Fri 7 May

Now on YouTube: Digging Out at All Saints Estate

Ned and Matthieu at All Saints Estate 'digging out' the must from 2010 vintage Shiraz and then shovelled into the 1890's French wine press. All the red wines at All Saints Estate are hade made this traditional way.

 Fri 9 Apr
 Monday 5 April was our last day of vintage with Muscat being harvested.

Big thank you goes to all the Vineyard staff, Nick, Ronnie, Hannah and Mr Manpower himself Kevin Hibberson. Thanks also to Baz, for lending a helping hand along the way.

Perhaps THE best vintage we have had in four years, with mild temperatures helping the process and fantastic yields due to fastidious in-house pruning over the Winter months.
Tue 23 Mar Now on YouTube: All Saints Estate 2010 Durif

All Saints Estate's Nick Brown hand sorting 2010 Durif
Thu 4 Mar Now on YouTube: All Saints Estate 2010 Shiraz

Stephanie Brown and Dan Crane shovelling out the post fermented 2010 Shiraz in to 1890s basket press ready for pressing.
Mon 1 Mar

Now on YouTube: All Saints Estate Winemaker 2010 All Saints Estate Winemaker Part 2

Australian winemaker Dan Crane talking about his love of traditional winemaking practices at the start of the Rutherglen vintage.
Fri 26 Feb
This morning the vineyard team did a great job out at Mount Prior, picking 16T of Shiraz. The fruit looks great. It is on heavier clay soils and tends to be a bit richer than our own, although not as aromatic. It is a great blender. We are crushing it now.

Yesterday we picked the last of the Marsanne and put a few hundred kilos in the old keg factory on straw to dry. We'll make a desert wine from this. The rest of the Marsanne was basket pressed here at the castle.
Wed 24 Feb Now on YouTube: All Saints Estate Vin de Paille 2010 
Mon 22 Feb The vintage is progressing nice and slow. We have finished all the whites except a portion of the Marsanne. We will probably start picking reds later this week.

Late last week we secured a great parcel of Chardonnay from a local grower. We decided to process this ourselves through the old wooden press. Progress was extremely slow, but the juice turned out really well. We crushed to fruit into the press and let the free run pour out through the slats, then gently pressed the skins. The juice that came out of this pressing was very clear, so we simply wedged a barrel under the press spout and took off some of this juice for a wild, unsettled ferment. We did four barrels that way - I'm hoping they will be really funky.
Sun 21 Feb

 Now on YouTube: Nick Brown hand picking at All Saints Estate 2010 Vintage

 

  
Mon 15 Feb We have picked most of our whites now and the results are fantastic. Yields are good (about 20% higher than expectations) without being excessive. The rain has been a concern, but so far the fruit has been holding up well. According to the bureau, we are heading into a period of warm and dry weather. This should get things back on track nicely.

On Friday we picked 2/3 of the Marsanne block, keen to beat the predicted rain, but leaving 1/3 of the fruit on the vine to ripen further. It is the Marsanne's 50th birthday this year, so we are hoping to make something really special.

Reds might start this week, if not it will be early next week, with merlot expected to come off first.
Mon 8 Feb
Things have really picked up in pace since last week. The Chardonnay at St Leonards, the Semillon and the Riesling are all ready to come off, so we shall be picking this week. The rain has not done any significant damage to these varieties and we are looking forward to some top-quality wines as a result.

The reds are still at least a week away and looking good at the moment. We are hoping for some warm, dry days ahead to keep things on track and allow the moisture in the soil to work its way through.
Thu 4 Feb
 With weather prediction skills bordering on the uncanny, Nick and I decided to bring the All Saints Chardonnay pick forward to last night (Wednesday) and so avoided the rain. 9.5 Tonnes of gorgeous Chardonnay was skilfully picked and has now been crushed and pressed. The juice is delicious and the wine will be too - although you'll have to wait a couple of years to find out.

A great way to start.
Thu 3 Feb
 Tonight is officially the start of Vintage 2010! Nick, Hannah, Ron (and maybe some others), will be bringing in the first fruit. The result of a year of hard work in the vineyard, everything looks fantastic and we are really excited about having the best year in ages.

We'll be picking the Chardonnay at All Saints. It will go to Rutherglen Estates for pressing and then come back here for fermentation in barrel next week.

I'll keep you up to date with the goings on. But for now, a big congratulations to Nick, Ron and Hannah for an excellent year in the vineyard and best wishes for the harvest.
Wed 27 Jan Busy as always.

Next week we are bottling the new 2008 Sangiovese Cabernet. We are delighted with the way the wine has come together. It is perhaps a little fuller and softer than the 2006, but still with plenty of grip and tight acidity - another great food wine.

We are also doing the 2009 Merlot - first of the 2009 reds and I think the best Merlot we have done in a while. Lovely rich fruit but without being soupy.

And... Vintage will start next week. Barring upsets with the weather we will be picking Chardonnay at All Saints and St Leonards on Monday. The fruit is in perfect condition and it looks like a great start to 2010.
Mon 4 Jan 2010 First day back for Ned and me (Dan) – so Happy New Year to one and all.

Lots happening in the winery this week... We have the new vintage of 2008 Sangiovese Cabernet to prepare. The wine looks great at the moment. We have three batches of Sangiovese to combine – One, a blend of standard and long maceration wine held in tank for 18 months, a batch of long maceration wine held in old puncheons (both batches from Rutherglen fruit) and a much lighter batch for Sangiovese from up in the King Valley. These will work together well with 30% of Cabernet Sauvignon. We should be bottling this early next month. Also going ‘down the line’ will be the first of the 2009 reds – our All Saints Merlot.

I took a post-Christmas look at the 2009 FC Marsanne this afternoon – I’m really happy with how it is coming along. It has a really nice balance to it. We’ll give it one more stir this week and then let it think to itself before bottling after this vintage is out of the way.