Fast and furious is perhaps the best descriptor for vintage 2010. One week the grapes are 12 baume and looking about 2 weeks away from picking, 3 days later they are over 13.5 baume and screaming to be picked! The week of plus 35C temperatures certainly sped up sugar accumulation though flavour lagged which meant picking decisions were a little trickier this year. In the end we were happy with our decisions and the grapes came in without sunburn and showing plump fruit flavours. Thank God for our dedicated crew of pickers who were happy to pick on short notice. Thank God also for our new cool room! This year we had the luxury of being able to pick fruit and store it overnight to cool before processing. Some small 1-2 tonne batches were also fermented in the cool room. I developed pretty impressive arm and shoulder muscles this year.
As I write, all the reds are going through malolactic fermentation. The Saignee is about to be racked off bentonite and then tickled with tartar to get through cold stability before bottling in about 2 weeks. It is a paler wine this year as almost half the volume was barrel fermented in old oak and the lees stirred to give the wine texture and mouthfeel. After much discussion, the Saignee will again be on the sweet side, carrying about 4-5g of sugar.
My favourite wine in tank at the moment is a cabernet sauvignon from our 20 year-old vineyard beneath the winery. Barely any grapes were removed at the sorting table as the quality was so high. Birds behaved themselves this year! The batch fermented for about a week and then was left on skins for a further 2 weeks with gentle plunging once a day. The result is a complex, elegant wine, perhaps the most Bordeaux-like in style wine that I have made at Aldersyde. My other favourites are the malbec - jet black in colour, with finesse and intensity - and the old vines shiraz. I have fun with the old shiraz, it seems to love attention, so it gets foot stomping, plunging and is fermented with indigenous yeast and 50% stalks. This wine has soul.
As always, vintage was a family affair, full of laughter, heated debates and much food and wine. Uncle Ray was the tractor driver and head basket-press controller, Mum and Tetka Beka captains of the sorting table and cousins Miki and Rada processing and making adds while Ujak Milic was a picture of organisation with his crate washing system. My brothers Pete and Mike were there each weekend to load up the crates, help press and clean up and Auntie Lee always there doing the lion's share of tasks everyone likes to pretend aren't there. Mum gave me loads of TLC during vintage with dinner waiting for me each night or a hot cup of tea brought down to the winery at 10pm when it looked like it was going to be a late one. Thanks to everyone, not least our winery dogs Oban and Zoe for keeping me company and making me smile when things seemed grim.
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