The throes of winter are upon us, the last leaves have fallen off the vines and pruning crews are out in force across McLaren Vale.

While the pace in the winery has slowed somewhat from the frantic times of vintage, there is still plenty to do. In June we bottled our 2015 Pinot Grigio and 2014 Shiraz, and this month we will be bottling our first Riesling Gewurztraminer (2015) and a 2013 Nebbiolo. It is always exciting to see our wines make it to bottle and even more exciting to see how they are received by our customers. Our 2015 Pinot Grigio has already hit the shelves and wine lists of bottle shops, cafes, hotels and restaurants and by the way it is selling I can only assume those who have chosen to partake in a glass or bottle have really enjoyed it.

In between preparations for bottling I have been looking after our 2015 reds, which are now maturing in barrels. This year we produced two great McLaren Vale reds, a straight Shiraz and a Grenache Shiraz Mouvedre blend (67/28/5%) to be exact.

I am looking forward to catching up with many of you in the near future when we conduct our 2015 release tastings. More news on those tastings shortly. In the mean time I’m off to enjoy a glass of red by the fire.

Cheers
Russell

Hi everyone,

Vintage has been racing along for 8 weeks now and the finish line is in sight. It has been fast and furious! After a wonderfully mild January, fruit started coming into the winery on January 30. That is the first time in my ten years in McLaren Vale that I have seen fruit processed in January. I guess there is one bonus to an early start and that would be an early finish!

As I mentioned, January was very mild, perfect for ripening fruit. The vineyards looked sensational and the white grapes arriving at the winery tasted terrific. In mid February the mood changed somewhat as we endured a couple of mini heat waves. Two weekends in a row, temperatures hovered close to or above 40 degrees, bringing on the ripening of many red grapes at a rapid rate. As a consequence, it seemed like nearly all of the fruit in McLaren Vale was ready and had to be picked. Local wineries were sent in a state of mayhem, trying to squeeze in what fruit we could, as fast as we could.

We are now out the other side of that frantic period and the reds are looking great, particularly Shiraz. Grenache fruit is now coming into the winery, a sure sign that the end of vintage is just around the corner. As we all know Grenache loves the heat and the fruit I’ve seen so far looks superb. After a couple of lean years for Grenache, this is going to be one out of the box.

At Semprevino we are going to have a fantastic 2015 Pinot Grigio available in the not too distant future. This wine has now finished its fermentation and preparation for bottling will commence shortly. We will also be producing a Shiraz and GSM, both of which will be barrelled down for 12 or so months. This year we also plan to release a 2014 Shiraz and maybe another little surprise. You’ll have to watch this space for more updates on that one.

Russell tasting the pinot grigio ferment straight from the tank

With the hot weather seemly behind us, it feels like Autumn is in the air. I can’t wait for the couple of months to pass when all the hard work is well and truly over. I’ll be sitting by the fire, glass of Shiraz in hand watching the footy!

Cheers, Russell.