We are well into picking one of the earliest and most compressed vintages I have seen.

The sparkling Chardonnay and Pinot Noir we recently picked from Bream Creek was absolutely perfect and some of the best fruit I have ever seen. Now we have table Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in our sights with some fabulous Schönburger fruit close behind. One of the surprising aspects of this vintage is just how early the Sauvignon Blanc grapes are for this time of the season – they are usually quite unpalatable at this stage! Riesling as well is far more advanced than usual and developing some magnificent flavours.

It looks as though 2016 will be among the best and most interesting vintages we’ve seen for a while!

Cheers

Fred

This season is probably the direst I have seen in over 30 years.  We have been irrigating for months and are fortunate in having water still available.  The vines are obviously enjoying the heart and the crop looks great!

The 2015 vintage concluded for us on Friday 8 May, when we picked Sauvignon Blanc from Block A as well as the Riesling grapes from our 40 year old vines in Block C.   Crop yields are, like last year, modest but we are excited by the quality we are already seeing across the board – especially Pinot Noir, Riesling, Chardonnay and Schönburger.  We expect to release our 2015 table Schönburger around the middle of September, and with many requests for this wine in our database we will be in touch a soon as it is available.

Cheers

Fred

Yes, vintage 2015 started for Bream Creek on 20 March 2015, when we picked Chardonnay from Block D for our Cuvee sparkling.  Our cool site not only produces fabulous grape flavours but also allows the retention of natural acid which is vital for the production of premium sparkling wine.  While crop yields will, like last year, be modest, we are very excited by the quality we are already seeing – especially Pinot Noir, Riesling and Schönburger.

An interesting and challenging season so far with some weird weather from mid November onward. Bouts of strong wind, recent heavy rain and a period of “mizzle” in early December look like making for a lighter than average crop. However, the vine canopies (ie the leaves!) are looking very powerful and unstressed for this time of year. It has been quite mild on average, hence ripening is running to our normal schedule and we expect to start netting in very early February. As the weather seems to have settled and is warming up now we are feeling pretty confident of some great fruit although perhaps at lower production levels than average. It’s the familiar story of quantity and quality – and the latter is paramount in our eyes!

Cheers, Fred

We are proud to announce the release of three new vintages in our portfolio.  They are:

2012 Riesling – this vintage shows rich flavours of lime juice, perfectly balanced by crisp Tassie acidity.  Recipient of two gold medals, 96 points and a “Best of the Best” rating from James Halliday and 95 points from each of Huon Hooke and Wine Showcase Magazine.

2014 ‘Mosaic’ – inspired by the Moscato wines of north-west Italy, this is a combination of our rare German Schönburger variety with Fred’s favourite variety, Gewürztraminer.

2014 Pinot Rosé – deliberately made in a drier style to better accompany a range of fine foods, it is also perfect for informal summer entertaining.

These wines are perfectly suited to sunny days over Christmas and can be purchased through our online store.

It’s been a pretty mixed season so far – a very dry winter and spring which prompted us to do some irrigating during late October. We had some quite cool weather, and for a while the vines were slow to develop, but recent warm sunny weather suddenly arrived, the vine leaves darkened in colour and they grew away. We have just started flowering in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, so hoping for some nice warm, sunny and settled weather.

Cheers, Fred

I am very pleased to be able to showcase our brand new website!  It has involved a great deal of hard work by our photographers and designers (Osborne Images) as well as our website magician Brigitte (MonkeyShine) but the result is, I think, quite amazing.  Enjoy!

Cheers

Fred