Just settling some confusion with a quick update... As a newbie to the wine industry, I am learning on the job. Not only on how things are done but also all the little ins and outs! Mind blowing just how and what the winemakers can do to produce that perfect drop! The big thing I have learnt recently is about the buying and selling of fruit, before it even makes it in the bottle. You may have noticed the excitement that surrounded our first planting day in November 2016. We had a fabulous few days with family visiting and our dream coming to life. Recently, I posted photos on instagram of fully netted vines with little legs skipping down them. Like a toddler,...
Since launching our wine earlier this year, we have received many wonderful comments about our name, logo and label design. So I thought I would share the story behind it, how it came about and how we ended up with the final design. In February 2015, while Rohan was busy harvesting grapes at his parent's vineyard, I was pregnant. Having finished teaching the year before, I was trying to get as much achieved as possible before our baby boy was born. Rohan had been planning to make his first "serious" wine for a number of months, and with the hot temperatures, he was checking the vineyard everyday. He had made wine from his parent's grapes before, but never on this...
Our bottling for 2016 is complete! Bottling is an exciting time, when the fruits of our labour are realised, and the wine is ready to be enjoyed! We were finally able to bottle the much anticipated 2015 shiraz after over a year maturing in french oak. It does not disappoint; packed with flavour with hints of chocolate, coffee and blackberries. It has a gorgeous aroma and was a pleasure to put into bottle. Also bottled was our 2016 chardonnay, which briefly sat in french oak before gently ageing. It has delicate notes of lemon, pear and a hint of vanilla. The shiraz and ruby cabernet are particularly special, coming from vines Rohan planted 17 years ago on his parent's property....
So much has been happening on the Winemaker Uncorked front lately – vintage, our son turned one and we purchased acreage at Trentham, Victoria to set up Rohan’s dream of his own vineyard, winery and cellar door. While all of this will take time, we have sold our house in Echuca and have moved down to Woodend temporary while we get things sorted at the new place. So now comes the exciting time of thinking up a new label name – we will continue with our Winemaker Uncorked label, using fruit from Rohan’s parents and friends in warmer climates but will need to come up with an estate label. Rohan is finalising all the details for the winery to be...
All wines begin with ripe fruit which contains sugar. Wines that are considered sweet usually have what is called residual sugar, this means the yeast that produce the alcohol were stopped by the winemaker to leave some sugar in the wine. A dry wine is a wine that has been fermented to the point where there is no fermentable sugar left. This means that the yeast have turned all the sugar that they can into alcohol. Any sweetness that may be left in the wine can be attributed to oak and/or un-fermentable sugars. Often a wine can have a sweet taste, but still be considered a dry wine. The levels of acidity, tannin and aroma all affect how sweet a wine tastes....
