This week: 29th. Dec.

Weather Report Week Ending 29/12/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 28C (82F) on Fri.
Minimum Temperature for the week 4.6C (40F) on Tue.
Rainfall for the Week 1.6mm (4 points) 2 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

A rather cool week. Should have been a good week for flavour development. Just a small amount of rain with 2 nights of very spectacular thunderstorms (picture above). I found the first signs of verasion this week - the picture is of some Pinot Noir just starting to change colour.

This week in the vineyard:

I have now completed our last (I hope) spray for the season. We will probably begin to sample some of our early varieties for maturity in this coming week. Harvest will be early this year - the earliest we have ever picked here is 31st Jan. we have the potential to beat that this year!

This week: 22nd. Dec.

Weather Report Week Ending 22/12/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 35.1C (95F) on Wed.
Minimum Temperature for the week 9.2C (49F) on Sat.
Rainfall for the Week 14.4mm (41 points) 1 day of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Well some more rain for us this week. All of the rain fell over an 18 hour period on Thurs. night/ Fri. morning. Any rain we get from now on will be a problem for us as we are about to enter withholding periods on most of the chemicals we use to protect our vineyard from disease (mainly Downy and Powdery mildew). I was planning to put a protectant spray (Sulphur and either Copper or Mancozeb) out between Christmas and New year, however due to the rain we had last week I will now have to add an eradicant chemical (probably Metalaxyl), to eliminate any disease we may have picked up.

This week in the vineyard:
The sprayer is now ready to go on Boxing day (providing the weather is suitable). We spent some of last week getting ready for the rain, cleaning out gutters and fixing up down pipes etc. to catch all the water we could, our tanks are beginning to get fairly low! Our spray shed has large tanks (approx. 75,000 Litres), we use nearly all rain water to do our spraying - I think I will just have enough water for this next spray and then they will be empty. If we need to do another spray I will probably need to use mains water.

This week: 15th. Dec.

Weather Report Week Ending 15/12/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 41.2C (106F) on Sat.
Minimum Temperature for the week 7.0C (44F) on Tue.
Rainfall for the Week 2.2mm (7 points) 2 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Saturday was a real scorcher here in the Barossa. Only 0.6 of a degree below our hottest recorded December day (41.8C 30th Dec 2005). There are some signs of sunburn showing up - but not as bad as I was expecting. The automatic weather station at Nuriootpa went down for a couple of days this week, but I think the figures above are accurate.

This week in the vineyard:
This week I finally finished spraying weeds. Next week I will be getting the sprayer ready for our final spray this season - only our 4th spray, nearly half of what we normally put out. There just hasn't been the conditions for disease this year. Still in these difficult times, every dollar we can save helps us stay in business that little bit longer. My staff have all knocked off for the Christmas holidays so there will not be a lot happening until the New Year in our vineyard.

BAROSSA WINE INDUSTRY MANAGEMENT PLAN RELEASED FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

After a collaborative effort by a special Steering Committee of Barossa growers and winemakers covering most of this year, the final draft of the Barossa Wine Industry Management Plan has been released for industry consultation. The Plan aims to redress the current problems of oversupply of grapes and wine and low profitability within the wine industry and secure the future of our industry for future generations.

Speaking following the release, Steering Committee secretary Bob Taplin said that the Plan, if implemented, will affect every single winegrape grower within the Barossa region and every purchaser of Barossa grapes. “Every grower and winemaker should therefore make an effort to study the draft Plan and try to see how the Plan can help our industry develop,” Mr. Taplin said. “The ground work has been done but wider involvement from industry is required before decisions need to be made.”

Interested growers and winemakers can access the Plan via the website for the Barossa & Light Regional Development Board at http://www.bld.org.au/ (under the heading “Wine Industry”). They can also contact members of the Steering Committee for details, including details of a number of special information meetings that will held in the second week of January.

Steering Committee members include (in alphabetical order) Chris Canute, Paul Clancy, Jaysen Collins, John Curnow, Rob Gibson, John Hahn, Adrian Hoffmann, Keith Hoffmann, Geoff Knights, James Lindner, Anne Moroney, Matthew Munzberg, Leo Pech, James Rosenzweig, Ed Schild, Bob Taplin and Scott Tolhurst.

A public meeting, when growers and winemakers will be invited to decide on whether to adopt the Plan or not, has been tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, January 30.

This week: 8th. Dec.

Weather Report Week Ending 8/12/06

Maximum Temperature for the week 38.8C (102F) on Fri.
Minimum Temperature for the week 4.1C (39F) on Sun.
Rainfall for the Week 0.0mm (0 points) 0 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Another typical summer week here in the Barossa. No rain and warm to hot conditions all week. Not much else to say this week - no signs of verasion yet.

This week in the vineyard:
Well I passed our quality assurance audit this week without any trouble. We have been continuing to put growguards on our grafted Sauv. Blanc. The photo shows some of these tubes on the vines. We have had them made small enough so that they will not flap in the wind. They also do not go all the way to the ground, we have done this to encourage air flow so the vines will not get too hot. To our knowledge no one else has tried this in grafted vines, I will keep you up to date on how it all goes. We are starting to think about timing of fungicide sprays now, to avoid withholding periods, depending on rain in the next week or so, we may only put our next spray out between Christmas and new year. If we can do this that would probably be our last spay this vintage.

This week: 1st. Dec.

Weather Report Week Ending 1/12/06

Maximum Temperature for the week 39.0C (102F) on Thur.
Minimum Temperature for the week 10.8C (51F) on Wed.
Rainfall for the Week 0.2mm (1 point) 1 day of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.


Another hot dry week here in the Barossa Valley. We have now given most of our vineyard a drink. It is just so very dry this year, we don't normally start watering before Christmas. I have been going through some of the weather data for the Barossa, we are currently 165mm (472 points) of rainfall below our average to the end of November. November is the month that new wood is initiated for the next growing season - high temperatures help initiate more shoots, after a cool start to Nov. we finished the month 2.4c warmer than the average. I don't know what impact this will have on next growing season, as the frost we suffered will reduce some fruitfulness. A lot depends on our winter rainfall. But enough about next season, let's get this one in first. Here are some predictions for this vintage in the Barossa - we will have major reductions in tonnes picked overall across most varieties. Probably no grapes left unpicked on any Barossa vines this year. I would expect most older Shiraz will be well down on crop, so quality could be quite good. Whites will also suffer a little from sunburn as canopies are quite small with more fruit exposure than we would like to see. We have tried to combat this problem in our vineyard by adding catch wires to a lot of our Riesling and Sauv. Blanc. this year.

This week in the vineyard:
We continue to spot spray summer weeds. We are about to start a trial of some growguards to protect from wind damage the Sav. Blanc we topgrafted last month . We have had some growguards made this week and will be putting them out this week, I'll include a photo next week. I have also spent time this week getting ready for a quality assurance audit that we need to undertake every second year, I will let you know if we passed next week (not really expecting any problems).

This week: 24th. Nov.

Weather Report Week Ending 24/11/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 37.7C (100F) on Mon.
Minimum Temperature for the week 7.5C (45F) on Thur.
Rainfall for the Week 1.0mm (3 points) 2 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Well a week is a long time in the vineyard. The rain of last week seems like just a distant memory. We have had a very hot week this week, with very low humidity's (as low as 1% for a couple of hours on Mon.). Our soil moistures are still quite good, however they fall very fast in conditions like this.

This week in the vineyard:

We have been out spot spraying summer weeds as they germinate. We have also started to skirt some of our more sprawling varieties (Riesling, Chardonnay and Shiraz mostly), this promotes air movement through the canopies and reduces our risk of disease. The photo this week shows one of our 90 year old Shiraz vines that provide fruit for our Mad Dog Shiraz.

This week: 17th. Nov.

Weather Report Week Ending 17/11/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 31.7C (88F) on Sat.
Minimum Temperature for the week 3.3C (38F) on Tue.
Rainfall for the Week 21.6mm (62 points) 5 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

At last a good downpour of rain. We recorded 17mm of rain on Sunday, it rained for more than 7 hours, we had virtually no run off. It will help our frost affected vines to recover, we had new growing tips showing less than 2 days after the rain. It would be really nice to get another fall like this one in the next couple of weeks.

This week in the vineyard:
All of our vines have now finished flowering. Because of the rain we have been out spraying fungicide to prevent downy & powdery mildew. Next week we will have summer weeds germinating, which will need to be dealt with. This week's photo is of a Chardonnay bunch nearly at bunch closure, already!

This week: 10th. Nov.

Weather Report Week Ending 10/11/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 28.0C (82F) on Fri.
Minimum Temperature for the week 5.2C (41F) on Fri.
Rainfall for the Week 0.0mm (0 points) 0 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

No rain again this week. As you can see from the photo above the Barossa ranges have now taken on their Summer browns. Quite good flowering conditions this week - a very cool set of temperatures this week, only Thurs. and Fri. max temps being above average (this may have an impact on fruit initiation for next year). The only down side to flowering has been a couple of nights of very strong gully winds, this might have had implications for our fruit set on some varieties.

This week in the vineyard:
We continue to summer prune watershoots. This week we took petiols (leaf stems) from some of our blocks for analysis at a lab. to check on our vineyards nutritional health. The picture shows the block of Sauv. Blanc we topgrafted last week.

More about our wine.

James Halliday Australian Wine Companion 2007 Edition
Winery Rating 4.5 Stars: "Excellent Producer of very high quality wines.
'2004 Mad Dog Shiraz: Good colour, a complex array of leather, spice, licourice and blackberry aromas and flavours; while powerful, is nimble on its feet. 93 Points.'

Sunday Times Magazine Top 100, November 2005

"Mad Dog Munzberg is a third generation Barossa grapegrower and this is produced by the fourth generation: powerful, unctuous, ripe and seductive"
Peter Forrestal

"From a top vintage. Opulently rich, with spice and mulberries, it's a joy to drink."Rating: 91/100
Ken Gargett, Brisbane Courier Mail, November 26th 2005

"Mad Dog is a project that draws together two couples and one of their fathers who happens to be a grower in the Barossa Valley. There's plenty of industry experience between them and they have advantageously put it all to good use in this modern juicy fruit bomb. Really pure and lifted black fruits on the nose, the wine has an ethereal, fragrant side, underscored with eastern spice, liquorice and pain grilli. It verges on ethereal and impresses with vibrancy and impact. The oak is more than fully met by the fruit. Look out for redskin raspberry flavour on the palate that opens out to deeper dark chocolate and toasty oak char. The middle fills out nicely with fleshy curtains of fruit and fine dense tannins working away in good balance. For all the verve and vivaciousness, the finish winds up pleasingly savoury, slightly chewy and the plum-cake flavour lasts well over a minute. It will build and integrate in bottle with a year or two." 92+ points
Nick Stock, Adelaide Review, 14th October 2005

This week: 3rd. Nov.

Weather Report Week Ending 3/11/06

Maximum Temperature for the week 27.7C (82F) on Wed.
Minimum Temperature for the week 1.4C (34F) on Sat.
Rainfall for the Week 0.6mm (1.5 points) 2 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Just a hint of rain this week - not enough to even settle the dust, certainly not enough to be useable by the vines. No further frost this week, although being full moon we are not out of the woods yet! Chardonnay is virtually finished flowering, all other varieties are flowering this week. The mild weather this week should aid a good fruit set. Looks like another good week coming up (weather wise) for good fruit set. This last month we set another new record here in the Barossa Valley, this was the first Oct. in more than 50 years of records that no rain was recorded. The drought continues to worsen!

This week in the vineyard:

We have had a grafting team here top grafting a block of Shiraz and Cabernet over to Sauvinon Blanc. They have finished the whole block in under a week, now we just have to wait for them to shoot. We have also been breaking off water shoots from around the stems of the vines. The photo this week shows our Sauvinion Blanc. in full flower.

This week: 27th Oct.

Weather Report Week Ending 27/10/06

Maximum Temperature for the week 30.1C (86F) on Tue.
Minimum Temperature for the week 0.0C (32F) on Sat.
Rainfall for the Week 0.0mm (0 points) 0 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Yet again no rainfall recorded this week. Some of our winery reps are telling us to watch out for restricted growth - I have not seen any in our vineyard, however it will be a problem in some vineyards this year. Restricted growth could mean there will be more sunburn damage in those blocks later in the year. As I reported earlier, we had frost in the Barossa on Sat. morning, we have had some light damage to growing tips on some of our blocks, however I do not think we have lost much crop - we will know more after flowering. Chardonnay is in full flower this week, other varieties will be flowering in the next couple of weeks.

This week in the vineyard:

We have put on our 2nd fugicide spray. We have now finished mowing covercrops and will now spray anything that regrows. Watershoots are also being removed at the moment.
This picture shows some of the frost damage in the Stockwell/Light Pass areas. While small areas of the Barossa like this have been severely affected by frost, most of the Barossa is unaffected and the impact on our total crush is likley to be minimal.

FROST FROST FROST

It had to happen. We have had some frost damage. Sat. morning (21st), the temp. at Nurootpa dropped to 0C (32F), it appears to have gotten a bit colder here as some of our vineyards have been moderately frosted. We are hoping the damage is not too bad as the fruit zone does not appear to be badly affected, however we have lost most of our growing tips.
The temp trace shows Friday night going into Saturday morning. We do not think that the temperature spent very long below 0C. I will have more to report on the amount of damage we have suffered with my regular report on the weekend.
Temp trace thanks to Weatherzone and Nuri viticulture research centre.

This week: 20th Oct.

Weather Report Week Ending 20/10/06

Maximum Temperature for the week 30.6C (87F) on Tue.
Minimum Temperature for the week 3.3C (38F) on Sun.
Rainfall for the Week 0.0mm (0 points) 0 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

The drought is really starting to bite here now. Adelaide has now had level 2 water restrictions imposed. Barossa irrigators are being limited to 70% of our water allocations (we are expecting harsher restrictions later in the season if we do not get some rain soon). The vines are continuing to grow very rapidly, we have the first signs of flowering in Chardonnay this week (at least 3 weeks earlier than normal). I think the vines know what sort of season we are in for this year and so they are in a big hurry.

This week in the vineyard :
We are continuing to mow covercrops to minimize our frost risk. I have started putting out our 2nd fungicide spray. Normally we would put on three sprays before flowering, however we have skipped our normal 2nd spray because of how early flowering is this year.

This week: 13th Oct.

Weather Report Week Ending 13/10/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 36.8C (98F) on Thur.
Minimum Temperature for the week 4.4C (40F) on Mon.
Rainfall for the Week 0.0mm (0 points) 0 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Still no sign of rain. The high temperature on Thurs. this week have set a new record for this month ( since 1952). The previous high temperature on record was 36.6 set on the 12th of 2004. The very low temperatures that I reported last week did not do any damage to our vineyards, however some other Barossa vineyards have been severly damaged. The worst damage I have heard about has been to some Eden valley vineyards and some of the premium vineyards in the northern Barossa. I will know more next week.

This week in the vineyard :
I have been away on holidays the last 2 weeks, that is why there have been no new photos to show you. I am home again and will post some new photos next week. While I have been away most of our covercrop has been mowed down again - probably for the last time. We will be getting our next fungicide spray out this week and soon after that killing off the cover crop.

This week: 6th Oct.

Weather Report Week Ending 6/10/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 35.9C (96F) on Fri.
Minimum Temperature for the week 0.2C (32F) on Wed.
Rainfall for the Week 0.0mm (0 points) 0 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Yet again no rain. The outlook for substantial spring rain is not looking good. We went very close to a damaging frost on Wed. night. I am away on holiday at the moment and so will update you on any damage that may have been caused next week.

This week in the vineyard :

I am away on holiday this week so will let you know what has happened next week.

This week: 29nd Sept.

Weather Report Week Ending 29/9/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 24.4C (76F) on Tue.
Minimum Temperature for the week 3.5C (39F) on Mon.
Rainfall for the Week 8.0mm (23 points) 2 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Another teasing amount of rain this week. Just enough to keep everything green but not enough to help the looming problem of insufficient moisture levels.

This week in the vineyard :

We have put out our first fungicide spray this week (a Copper & sulfur protectant). We are also modifying the trellis in some of our white varieties to add a catch wire to help improve shading of the fruit. We have been running trials of this system in a number of different varieties for a couple of years, with very good results.

Winner Barossa Young Viticulturist Fellowship

The winner of the inaugural Barossa Young Viticulturist Fellowship was announced in the Barossa this week. The winner of the $10,000 dollar fellowship is Adrian Hoffman. Adrian is planning to use the money to start a public consultation process that will eventually lead to a voluntary code of conduct for grape growers in the Barossa Valley. I will keep you all posted as to his progress and give you some more details in a later post.

This week: 22nd Sept.

Weather Report Week Ending 22/9/06

Maximum Temperature for the week 29.3C (85F) on Mon.
Minimum Temperature for the week 5.4C (41F) on Thur.
Rainfall for the Week 0.8mm (2 points) 0 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Our dry winter continues with no sign of the substantial rainfall we desperately need. So far this month Nuriootpa has only had 12.6 mm (36 points) of rain, our driest september in the last 10 years (1999) we had 44.8 mm (128 points). We need a big downpour in the next week to get anywhere near that.

This week in the vineyard :

This week we have been doing trellis repairs and continuing to mow down covercrop. I have also been preparing to put out our first fungicide spray. The photo at top shows the same shoot that I photographed last week - things are growing very rapidly now!

Mad dog wines

Now to our own wine. Our label is called ‘Mad Dog’, we have released 5 vintages so far, with the first vintage being 1999. We did not produce a 2000 vintage. The 2005 will be released later this year. Our Mad Dog Shiraz has had some very impressive reviews. We have been growing grapes here for nearly 100 years and that experience is used to select the parcel of fruit that goes to make our Mad Dog. We hand prune the vines to fairly low bud numbers in winter. In spring we carefully monitor for pests and diseases and treat as needed. If needed, before flowering, we will go through and do a hand shoot thin to ensure even light penetration into the canopy. Just before verasion we do a light hand bunch thin, this is to ensure even ripening of the whole crop. We monitor our soil moisture levels using Capacitance probes and only water to prevent the vines going into moisture stress, we continue monitoring each irrigation to ensure we are only watering the known root zone of the vine. We do all this to provide the vine with the optimum amount of water without wasting water or over watering our vines. As harvest approaches we work closely with our contract winemaking team, sampling the whole block regularly to ensure that we pick at the optimum time to get flavor ripeness rather than just picking when we achieve a predetermined sugar level. We carefully harvest and deliver the fruit to the winery usually in less than 2 hours to ensure the fruit arrives in the best possible condition for our winemakers to work with. So far this philosophy has worked very well for us and we have only positive feedback on our wines. Because of the very small quantity we produce it is quite hard to find our wine for sale, if you would like to try some drop me an email and I will try to let you know where it is available near you. The picture at right shows some of the Mad Dog brains trust sampling the yet to be released 2005 and 2006 Shiraz and the very limited 2006 Sangiovese that will be bottled later this year. From left are my sister and her husband and my father.

This week: 15th Sept.

Weather Report Week Ending 15/9/06

Maximum Temperature for the week 24.0C (75F) on Fri.
Minimum Temperature for the week 3.0C (37F) on Tue.
Rainfall for the Week 1.6mm (4.5 points) 1 day of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Very dry again this week. Our vines are really starting to grow now. The warm weather is certainly getting things moving - we just need some more moisture. It is looking like we will be relying on our irrigation quite a bit this year. Anyone without the ability to irrigate in the Barossa this year could be in very serious trouble. I have now got Weather records for Nuriootpa that date back to 1952, last month was our driest Aug. on record and we still need 6 mm of rain this month to beat our driest Sept.

This week in the vineyard : We continue to mow covercrops. There is still a risk of frost - although probably not for another couple of weeks, closer to the next full moon. Our block of Shiraz and Cabernet that we are going to top graft over to Sauvinon Blanc is now ready for our grafting contractor to come - all the vines have been cut off and treated to prevent Eutypa. This weeks photos are at the top of a Shiraz bud and at right of some of our young Chardonnay.

This week: 8th Sept.

Weather Report Week Ending 08/9/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 25.8C (78F) on Sat.
Minimum Temperature for the week 3.4C (38F) on Tue.
Rainfall for the Week 10.2mm (29 points) 2 days of rain.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Some rainfall this week - still not enough to make a difference to the season. The rain that we have had was just enough to green everything up again, but still not enough to replenish our subsoil moistures.

This week in the vineyard :
We have now finished mowing our covercrops down, some of it has now been done a second time. The forcast is for some very cold nights coming up this week, so we are keeping our covercrops as short as possible. We have just had a full moon which also increases our risk of frost damage. This weeks picture shows the same view as last week but the covercrop has now been mowed.

This week: 1st Sept.

Weather Report Week Ending 01/9/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 24.0C (75F) on Fri.
Minimum Temperature for the week -0.7C (31F) on Sat.
Rainfall for the Week 0.2mm (1 point).
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.


Still no rainfall to report. This week I have seen the first signs of covercrops dying from lack of moisture. A couple more frosts this week, although not severe enough to damage the new buds that are starting to burst now. Last month was one of the driest Augusts on record for the Barossa Valley and that follows the previous two winter months also being well below average. Overall probably our driest winter on record.

This week in the vineyard : Our new block of Sauv. Blanc. has now been put in growtubes (as the picture above shows). We have also been out mowing down our cover crops, to reduce our frost risk and also to preserve the little bit of moisture we have in our soil. Below is a picture of one of our 16 year old Shiraz with it's first shoots just starting to burst. We also have young Chardonnay now at second leaf stage.

This week: 25th Aug.

Weather Report Week Ending 25/8/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 22.2C (72F) on Sun.
Minimum Temperature for the week -1.4C (29F) on Sat.
Rainfall for the Week 5.6mm (16 points) 2 days of more than 1mm.
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

The small amount of rain we have had again this week is enough to keep everything nice and green, however this is hiding very low subsoil moistures. Another fairly severe frost during this week, We seem to have had an awful lot of sub-zero nights this year (probably something to do with the lack of moisture in the system). The forcast for the next week is for warm, mostly dry conditions (not at all what we need).

This week in the vineyard :
We have planted a new block of Sauv. Blanc. for Yalumba. The picture at right is of two of our staff making holes with a water jet and then planting young vines into them.
We have had Nepenthe viticulture back to remove old vines from their trellis using a new machine they are developing. This mulches the vine wood to be broken down in the soil, instead of burning the old vines as we used to do. It also means we can reuse most of the existing trellis, a big cost saving for us. The photo below shows this machine working (make sure to stand well clear!).
This week I have not only found whooly buds, but some of our young Chardonnay is in the process of bursting, I would expect most of our other varieties to follow in the next couple of weeks (this is approx. 1 week earlier than we would normally expect).

This week: 18th Aug.

Weather Report Week Ending 18/8/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 23.7C (75F) on Wed.
Minimum Temperature for the week -0.2C (32F) on Tue.
Rainfall for the Week 3mm (8.5 points)
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Very little rain recorded again this week. In fact we have not had more than 10mm of rain in a single day for more than 3 months. Another two frosts during the week. Wednesday was a fairly warm windy day that will have evaporated a lot of moisture out of our system. It is still not too late in the season for substantial rainfall, the forecast for this week is looking a little hopeful..... I'll keep you posted.

This week in the vineyard :
We are about to start on our spring work. The picture this week shows Nepenthe viticulture barrel pruning a block we will be top grafting over to Sauvinon Blanc for Yalumba. This block is currently Shiraz and Cabernet that we have not been able to sell for the last 2 years. No signs yet of vines shooting - however they can not be far away now, I would think that next week I will have some whooly buds to report.

This week: 11th Aug.

Weather Report Week Ending 11/8/06

Maximum Temperature for the week 18.8C (65F) Tue.
Minimum Temperature for the week -0.4C (31F) Thurs.
Rainfall for the Week 0mm (0 points)
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

No rain recorded at all this week. Two more frosts during the week. All 7 days this week our Max. temp. was above average, and only one night was our Min. above average. The continuing dry weather will have an impact on the number of buds that burst in spring, if it remains dry then our vines will not make as many shoots which will mean lower crop levels. This will possibly mean better quality wine but less of it this year. It is not too late in the season still for substantial rainfall, but I think the frosts we have had this year will reduce bud fruitfulness and ultimately yields.

This week in the vineyard :
We have now finished all of our pruining. Tieing down continues the picture below shows some 16 year old Shiraz vines after being tied down. The cover crops are really growing now, but if we don't get some rain soon we may have to shut them down sooner than we normally would, to preserve the moisture that is there.

Our story part 2

This post will be about the physical characteristics of our vineyard. Our soil types are mostly Sand over Clay and vary in depth from about 20cm of sand up to over 1 m. We also have some small areas of heavy reactive clays. As I said earlier we have a large number of different varieties approx. 33% of our production is Shiraz. We also have significant plantings of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Most of our vines are now being planted on a variety of rootstock (depending on soil type and end use of the grapes) however nearly 50% of our vines are still on their own roots. As I also said earlier we make a small amount of our own wine but most of our production is sold to wineries that include Yalumba, Peter Lehmann, Barossa Valley Estate and Bethany wines (See my links for their web sites). We usually start picking our grapes early in February and finish in April. We normally pick about 400 tonnes of grapes each year. Of this we select about 6 tonnes of our best Shiraz to be made into our own wine. More on this next time.

Photo at right shows a member of our integrated pest management team, hard at work helping us to control insects in some of our 16 year old Shiraz.

Our story part 1

Today I will tell you a bit about myself and our family. I am the 4th generation of my family here in Australia. I am 39 years old, married with 3 children the eldest is currently 7. My Great Grandfather was born in Berlin in 1881 and immigrated to Australia with his family in 1884 to avoid religious persecution. In 1908 he purchased the first vineyard that now forms part of what we continue to work today. He passed away in 1970 at the age 88. My Grandfather passed away early in 2006 at the age of 90; he worked in our vineyard all his life. Grandpa and Dad have built our holdings up to what they are now. We have steadily added to our vineyards with the most recent purchase in 2005, to bring our total vineyard area to approx. 45 Ha. (120 acres). I have been involved in working and managing our vineyard since I left school 25 vintages ago. Our vineyard has undergone some very significant changes since my Great Grandfather first started growing grapes. The varieties we grow have changed a little, although we do still have some 95 year old Shiraz vines on their own roots. We are now able to give our vines supplemental irrigation and most of our vineyard can now be worked mechanically. I will say more about the changes that have occurred in future posts. This Photo is of my grandfather on his 90th birthday, 3 months before he passed away.

This week: 4th Aug.

Weather Report Week Ending 4/8/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 15C (59F) Fri.
Minimum Temperature for the week -0.4C (31F) Tue.
Rainfall for the Week 5.8mm (0.23inch)
Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

Still only very small amounts of rain. The countryside is looking very lush and green, however we have not had any soaking rain yet and the moisture that is present will dissappear very quickly in Spring. This week I have noticed the first signs of pruning cuts begining to weep, meaning the sap is begining to flow in the vines.

This week in the vineyard :
We continue to finish off the last of our pruning. We have been sweeping cuttings from under the vines - to lower our disease risk during the coming growing season. The picture at right shows some of our 15 year old Chardonnay vines after pruning ready to be tied down. We should finish this job in a few weeks.

Barossa Young Viticulturist Fellowship 2006

Barossa Young Viticulturist Fellowship 2006

The Barossa Viticulture Technical Group, in conjunction with sponsors Elders, Barossa Grapegrowers’ Vine Selection Society and Wine Barossa, seeks to expand the experience and involvement of young viticulturists and grape growers to ensure the future sustainability and competitiveness of the Barossa Wine Industry. To achieve this, a Fellowship Award has been established with applications now being sought.

$10,000 funding is available to cover travel and project related costs to enable an individual to undertake a project or area of study that broadens their knowledge and experience and provides benefits to the Barossa Wine Industry.

Applications need to demonstrate the applicant’s passion for viticulture, learning and the Barossa region.

The Fellowship winner will be required to devote some time to sponsors via seminars, trade days and contribute to the BVTG committee.

To be eligible applicants need to be between 18 and 35 years of age and be working or involved in the Barossa wine industry.

Applications for the 2006 Fellowship close September 1st.

Three finalists will be selected to attend the 2006 Barossa Wine Show Dinner on September 21st where the inaugural winner will be announced.

For further details and to make an application please contact either Ashley Ratcliff 0411 370 057, Chris Rogers 0400 255 964,
Steven Fiebiger 0448 663 879 or Kirsty Glaetzer 0417 822 605.

The Barossa Valley

Today I will tell you a little about the Barossa Valley. Our vineyards are located on the Barossa valley floor NE of Tanunda nestled close to the foothills of the beautiful Barossa ranges. For people who don’t know, the Barossa Valley is located about 1 hours drive North of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. The Valley Floor is about 320 meters (1000 feet) above Sea level (where our vineyards are located). The Barossa GIC (this stands for geographic indications committee) is made up of 2 sub regions. They are Eden Valley and Barossa Valley.
Eden Valley is the high altitude area, up to 1000 meters (3000 feet) above sea level. This is located on the East side of the GIC and is cooler than the valley floor and so grows very good Rieslings and Chardonnays but is also capable of some very nice Red’s such as Shiraz and Cabernets. There are also some plantings of more unusual varieties like Viognier getting a name for themselves.
The Barossa Valley is the other sub region of the Barossa GIC. This area is where all of our vineyards are located. Wine grapes have been grown here since 1842 soon after white settlement started in this area. The Barossa floor has been proved to be one of the best places in Australia to grow grapes, if not the World. We have a Mediterranean climate (that is hot dry summers, cool wet winters). We receive just over 500 mm (19 inches) of rainfall, we are able to give or vines up to another 100mm (4 inch) in supplementary irrigation (we have never given our vines that much, normally 40-80mm is the most they get). Most varieties of wine grapes have been planted somewhere on the valley floor. In the 1940’s and 50’s the Barossa was best known for our fortified wines. Now the star performer is Shiraz for full bodied table wines. But the Barossa can grow virtually any grapes well. Our vineyards have about 12 different varieties of grapes in them. I will tell you more about them in a future post. Map thanks to AWBC.

This week: 29th July

Weather Report Week Ending 29/7/06
Maximum Temperature for the week 15.9C (60F)
Minimum Temperature for the week 1.1C (34F)
Rainfall for the Week 4.2mm (0.16inch)
Weather data thanks to BOM Nuriootpa Viticulture centre.

Our dry winter continues, dispite a very good opening to the season, the rain has not continued as we would like to see. With the vines currently dormant this is not causing any problems yet. However if we do not get substantial rainfall before the end of winter it will impact on the vines once they start to shoot in spring.

This week in the vineyard :
Our contract pruners finished work this week, we will complete the pruning that is left with our own staff. Our cover crops have noticibly started growing. All the frosty nights this season had virtually stopped them growing at all up until now. The almond trees in the Barossa are all in full bloom, there is beginning to be a Spring feeling in the air.

An introduction

G’day in this blog I would like to introduce myself and tell you a bit about what I do. I am a 4th generation grape grower here in the Barossa Valley South Australia. I manage our family’s vineyards on the floor of the valley near Tanunda. In this blog I would like to keep you up to date with how our grapes are ripening and give you a description of what we are doing and perhaps a little of why. I am not writing this as a wine maker but as grapegrower. While we do make a small amount of wine ourselves, my involvement finishes once the grapes leave our vineyard. I will tell you more of our wine in future blog’s. I would also like to give you a rundown of the weather we have been experiencing and how it is impacting our fruit, so if you are not in the local area you can get some feel for what is happening out in the vineyard, and ultimately what you will be tasting in your glass. I will try to include as many Photos as I can to help you understand what I am talking about.