At this time of the year, many winemakers in the Southern states do their best mutton bird impression and migrate north to the promise of sunshine and the festive atmosphere of another vintage. At the moment our gun Cellar Hand, Scott McDonald, is throwing himself at another vintage with our good friends at Quivira. I am not sure what he is more excited about; getting back amongst the biodynamic vineyards or settling into the locally brewed ales at the Dry Creek General Store. Our Assistant Winemaker, Russell Burns, is also about to embark on a Northern Hemisphere Vintage in sunny Portugal. Personally, I have just returned from Europe where I ‘recalibrated’ my palate while travelling through the Southern Rhone. I love going back there. It's a great reminder of how well suited their native varieties are to their terroir and the wines always seem more pure and vibrant when tasted where they are made. It is also fantastic to catch up with some of the winemakers that have made the journey to Australia to help us at Torbreck during our vintage. There is nothing quite like the excitement and enthusiasm of a Frenchy trying to show you hundreds of years of winemaking and food culture in one day! I guess the ability to travel and discover new flavours, varieties, people and philosophies is just another reason why we choose to dedicate our lives to the journey of wine.
Needless to say, things are relatively quiet here in the Barossa at the moment. The 2009 vintage was the easiest vintage I have had since I have been at Torbreck and the wines have continued to behave themselves through malo-lactic fermentation. I am not usually one to get ahead of myself, but the 2009 wines are truly stunning. They have amazing structure, texture, lift and vibrancy and I honestly can’t wait to release the 2009 Juveniles so that everyone else can see what we are seeing in the winery.
We have also just recently ‘battled’ through blending the 2007 RunRig. It probably won’t come as a great shock to anyone to hear that I really enjoy tasting through the barrels for the RunRig. It is amazing to taste the components and to see the personality of each individual vineyard. I am always humbled by this process when I think about all the work that has gone into this wine, from the growers and their gnarly old vineyards, to the cellar hands that meticulously cared for the fruit during fermentation. It is also the last wine that we make from each vintage and in a way it gives some closure to the 2007 vintage. We are again very proud of the wines we produced from 2007 and hope everyone enjoys drinking them as much as we enjoyed making them.
Cheers,
Craig Isbel
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