Week 2: Started with a bang

Vintage never really starts quietly.

This year, the second week of vintage began with a bang. Quite literally.

When four barrels hit the floor

Four barrels of our high-end Shiraz were being moved in the barrel hall when they slipped from the forklift and hit the ground.

Thankfully everyone was completely fine, but the barrels were destroyed and the wine did not survive the impact.

For a moment the winery floor turned a deep purple as the wine rushed across the floor. It looked beautiful against the concrete, even if we were all trying not to think about what had just happened.

Mark was operating the forklift at the time, and unfortunately, these things do happen.

So far, it is one all for big mistakes between us across the last two vintages.

Pinot Noir and Shiraz arrive

After the dramatic start to the week things settled into more familiar vintage activity as two parcels rolled into the winery. Pinot Noir and Shiraz.

Both were lighter than expected.

The Shiraz came in at around 12 tonnes, and the Pinot Noir was even lighter at roughly 8 tonnes rather than the 15 tonnes each, as we anticipated.

It is still early days, but with four parcels now processed, a pattern is starting to appear. The vines simply are not carrying as much fruit this season. Growers are seeing it across the region, and it is beginning to look like 2026 may be a lighter vintage overall.

The upside is that the fruit quality looks excellent.

Pinot Noir: juicy fruit and early decisions

Pinot Noir in particular was extremely juicy. Because Pinot has such thin skins the berries had already begun releasing juice in the picking bins under their own weight.

We tasted both parcels before processing and the balance looks promising. Good sugar concentration and solid acidity.

Once the Pinot went through the system we made an early winemaking decision. We removed about 2000 litres of juice from the skins straight away.

That portion will be fermented separately for sparkling Pinot and Rosé where we want a lighter colour and fresher style.

The remaining fruit will stay on the skins longer and eventually head into barrels for our Small Batch range.

Shiraz brings a few challenges

The Shiraz parcel brought a different challenge.

It was not particularly juicy, which meant the pump struggled slightly getting skins moving through the lines. We solved this by recirculating juice from the fermenter back into the pump. It is something we have had to do in drier vintages before.

Then came another small complication.

We planned to split the parcel between tanks to experiment with a slightly different fermentation approach this year. The first tank filled nicely.

The second did not.

The door seal was not sitting properly and juice started leaking.

So we stopped the pump and moved to another tank.

That one leaked too.

Eventually, the third fermenter sealed properly, and we were able to move the fruit across and finish the job.

When we dropped the fruit from the leaking tanks and pumped it back into the final fermenter the colour was immediately noticeable. A deep rich purple running across the stainless steel as we jetted the juice over the skins.

By the end of the day, we had one 10-tonne fermenter and one smaller tank, each holding part of the Shiraz parcel for separate fermentations.

A possible barrel ferment

There are rumours developing in the winery that a portion of it may end up being barrel fermented.

Barrel fermenting Shiraz is not something we do lightly. It requires more attention and care throughout fermentation, and the fruit needs to warrant that level of treatment.

This parcel appears to.

If we go ahead, it will only be a small portion. Just a handful of barrels set aside to see how the wine develops under that approach.

Some of the best winemaking decisions are made on the fly during vintage. You see the fruit, taste it and decide what it deserves.

This Shiraz may have earned a bit of special attention.

What happens next

At the moment there is nothing immediately scheduled in the picking calendar.

Mark is out tasting fruit in the vineyards and watching closely. If the grapes continue to ripen as expected we may see the next parcels arriving early next week and the vintage will truly start to gather momentum.

We will keep you posted as the season unfolds.