With the hot steamy weather and  Cyclone Olga doing the wet weather watusi with the Queensland coast,the harvest for this year is just about over.This is only the second week of February, so to be finished this early is surprising to say the least.The weather has been characterised by hot, stormy afternoons with some parts of the valley receiving a hefty dump of the wet stuff while just down the road received nothing to talk about.

The red fruit has been variable , which means that the decision to source our Shiraz from Mudgee this year has been wise up until this point. Of course the weather gods could have the last laugh yet.

The Verdelho has just about finished ferment, as has the Semillon, and the Chardonnay has just gone into barrel for the last third of fermentation  or so. Our whites  are looking  fantastic at this point, and seeing the great reception we are having at tastings with restaurant managers we will certainly need  all the good quality volume we can get to match the 08’s. The Verdelho’s are tropical  fruit and lychee, the Semillon is all citrus and grass and the Chardonnay is shaping up to be a ” ball- tearer”.

The Kissing Willie saga goes on and I do apologise for the lateness of the new release, but I have to fit in with the labeling production schedule at our contract bottler. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer!  Many thanks to all the restaurants who have taken us on over the last month or so. As soon as I work out how to do it , I will hyperlink you to our site.

With the sky rumbling outside as I write this, I am glad  that all our Hunter fruit is in , including the Sauvignon Blanc from the Upper Hunter (I know,I know but it looks pretty good).  Until next time….

Regards

 Geoff

Reports are starting to fly around at the moment about how good this year’s vintage is looking . There is no doubt that the hot weather has meant that vintage is about a week or so earlier than the running average, but this may be the way of things to come with climate change . Certainly, anything with botrytis is drying out , with some growers going to the trouble of selectively picking it out before the main harvest.

Nothing changes year to year. The growers are hoping the weather holds and whether the harvester will show up,while the winemakers are worried where the hell they are going to fit it all. For me , it is the most exciting part of the year and I always look forward to about two-thirds of the way through ferment when the juices start to show their promise. You really only get one go per year to transform each individual batch of  fruit into wine, and it is intensely rewarding when you find that the results have been good.

By all accounts , both Semillon and Chardonnay look good ( Verdelho the same) and, if the weather holds, the reds should be of  a good quality as well. The elephant in the room is the amount of grapes being left on the vine. I know of a good grower who still hasn’t found a buyer for what are usually pretty good grapes and I suggest that this is not an isolated case. If I could be assured of a big lotto win I would help him out, but we are not a big enough company to take all of his excellent fruit.

We are however working on it!  We have had a good reception to the wines in establishments around Newcastle and environs, and I will have a list with links to them in the next blog. Until then , keep an eye out for our wines while you are at your favourite eatery. They may just be there…………..

Vintage has begun in the lower Hunter Valley, with the first of the grapes being used for sparkling base being harvested. The warm spell leading up to Christmas really hurried the ripening up, but there was a prolonged period of 10 to 12 days of overcast and drizzly conditions which tended to slow things down a bit. Unfortunately for some, this weather added some disease pressure, and heavy rainfall (from the leftovers of the cyclone) meant that some growers were not able to get on right away to spray around the Christmas -New year period. There is a little botrytis around, as well as downy, but the hot weather of the last couple of days has dried up some of it. This heat though, has kicked the grapes along and some Chardonnay and Semillon blocks are due to be harvested next week, mainly from the dry land vineyards. If the weather holds, we should see a pretty good vintage with the whites looking very good at this point.

I guess a big talking point will be how big the harvest will be this year, and not just from the Hunter. One way we can all help is support your local area or state and keep drinking Hunter (or, for that matter, any other respected area). The big boys will finally catch on that the industry is not all about 10 tonne to the acre, same old wine from huge vineyards. Support your local boutiquey!

I am going out early next week to look at some fruit and will report back then. Until that time, keep enjoying our wines.

Oh, and Happy 52nd  Birthday to Buss.

Geoff  12/01/10

The success of our “Kissing Willie” Sparkling Rose  has taken the winemaking team (namely me) by surprise. The process takes about 12 months to produce the finished wine, from base wine to the packaged wine in its final form. I have to admit that the wine sold so well that we have been caught short ( a problem in other areas too), and the next release is due towards late January.

Better news is the imminent release of the 2008 Stormcrow Cabernet Merlot. With only 16 cases of the 2006 left, the wine will be available from the New Year 2010. This is possibly the best of the Stormcrows so far, and I know those of you who follow the blend, will not be disappointed. Due to increased production costs we have had to raise the price to $15.00 per bottle or $180.00 per dozen delivered and we have only produced about 130 dozen. We still think that this wine is very inexpensive for the quality of the wine, and at the moment the only way you can order this wine is exclusively  through our website.
Which brings me to the website (www.broadfieldwines.com.au). People ask “Why use a website to sell the wine and can we get the wine anywhere else?”
The wine is sold at a few selected restaurants at the moment and I will be getting out on the road to try and get it into a few more after the New Year. The problem is getting it into liquor retailers. They have a devil of a time, the poor sods, in keeping up with all the cheap NZ Sauvignon Blanc’s and releases from the players at the big end of town (offering to drop their surplus wine at the right price) that it is hard for the little guy to compete  (without dropping our pants) and we are very small in winemaking terms. Logic (and our accountant) says that we should kick the price through the roof, but another way is to offer high quality and flavoursome wine-with-style to those in the know at a reasonable price: hence the website.
Keep an eye out for the new releases and wishing you and yours a very happy New Year—Geoff 31/12/09