Winemakers Note – Spring 2012

This is the time of year when the excitement around the winery begins to build. All of the vines have been through bud burst and the new growth is a verdant green, each new shoot shows signs of what fruit we may attain as the inflorescence develop into flowers. Flowering and fruit set will occur between now and December and the early signs are that the next vintage will be generous to us.

Now is the time to think about the wines we will make next year and those we will not likely produce again. On the white wine side of the tasting bench we are concentrating mainly on Viognier; a wine I personally like for its structure and texture and Chardonnay. For a few years our Chardy has been made quite simply but I have decided we shall revert to the style of 2005, 2006. With new oak coming from one of my preferred cooperages – Saury – the style for our 2013 Chardy will be more classic, building upon the 2012 vintage, more malo character and natural and barrel fermentation notes will be introduced to the wine.

At the red end of the bench it is likely we will not bottle a straight Petit Verdot in the future since demand for our ‘Clive Gale’ continues to grow. This wine is a blend of equal proportions of Cabernet, Merlot & Petit Verdot. Since the supply of good quality Petit Verdot is not endless what we do crush will go into the blend so that we do not compromise the philosophy behind the ‘Clive’.

We have a couple of new faces at Burnbrae; Lisa Bray – a fine winemaker who knows the Mudgee area well and has some great experience behind her. Lisa is going to be the one to counterbalance my old school approach to winemaking. Drop in and meet her, she will have a story to tell you.Our other recruit is Victor Hugo Gironda. I have known Victor for many years and respect his cellar hand abilities, even though he is a narcoleptic Argentinean and he calls the Falklands the Malvinas. Come and meet him, but don’t believe anything he says about me