Mad Dog Spring offer

Well spring has sprung in the Mad Dog vineyards! Mad Dog has been busily cleaning up our cellar and we have come across some past vintages that we thought we had sold out of a long time ago! These we have put together in a vertical tasting of Mad Dog history. The pack includes our 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006 Shiraz and 2006 and 2008 Sangiovese. Australian readers can get their hands on these very limited packs at the Mad Dog web site : www.MadDogwines.com.

Vineyard and Wine industry update

I thought it was about time I gave you all an update on the vineyard! We are currently in the last month of winter. We have had a (relatively) good winter so far. We are only approx. 15mm below our long term average rainfall for the year, and things are looking quite good. If this continues for the rest of the year it will be our first average rainfall year in about 5.

The cover crops are starting to grow more rapidly now (and so are the weeds). We are starting to think about when we should be mowing them down, as we want as much organic material as possible produced without using up all of the available soil moisture.

Pruning is beginning to wind up with only Chardonnay and Sauv. Blanc. blocks still to go. We look like getting finished in fairly good time, with the vines already starting to weep when cut (so tying rods down to wire is becoming a more urgent job to do). We have been pruning our vines fairly hard this year due to the severe surplus of wine in the Australian industry. We have pulled vines out (and left area bare), over the last few years. We are not expecting to be able sell all of the grapes we will produce in the upcoming vintage, we are going to limit our yields with heavy pruning (this should also have a positive impact on quality).

Prices we will be paid this year for our grapes will be well below our cost of production, the temptation is to produce more tonnes to offset these low prices, however this will not help the overall industry and if many growers adopt that kind of philosophy the wine industry will remain in the doldrums for a long period of time. Financial viability for grape growers in Australia is going to a major issue over the next few years. Our company requires a 30% lift in grape prices just to break even, if this does not happen in the next 2-3 years we will not be able to survive.

Ten years ago our family business supported 3 families - now it can not even support one (in that time we have expanded the area we farm and improved our mix of grape varieties). We are attempting to value add to our grapes with our label Mad Dog wines, but we have a long way to go before that will make much contribution to our financial bottom line.

Anyway enough doom and gloom, the answer is for everyone to drink up! Cheers!

Mad Dog wines web site

After 4 generations of growing grapes and 10 years of making their own wine under the label of ‘Mad Dog’, Matthew Munzberg director of Mad Dog announced today that Mad Dog wine is now available direct to customers over the Internet. The newly developed web site has a history of Mad Dog, reviews of the wine, an online shop where Australian customers can get Mad Dog wine delivered to their door and a membership area so that people can be kept informed about Mad Dog.

Mad Dog was started by the Munzberg family in 1999. Mad Dog uses only selected grapes grown in the Munzberg families vineyards at Vine Vale in the Barossa Valley. The family vineyards cover approx. 35 hectares of premium Barossa floor area, from which Mad Dog selects the best Shiraz and Sangiovese fruit. ‘We select the best fruit from our vineyard and combine traditional winemaking methods, minimal handling and top notch French oak to produce a Shiraz that is undeniably Barossa, with its rich fruit flavours and ample structure’ Matthew said.

Mad Dog currently produces a flagship Shiraz product (the 2006 vintage is for sale right now) and an exclusive Sangiovese, which comes from a very small 14 year old trial planting that produces small parcels of exceptional wine. The Shiraz comes from several blocks of old vines (some more than 100 years old). ‘Mad Dog plans to introduce several new products in the next few years. So I would advise anyone wanting to hear more to sign up to our Mad Dog club on the web site at http://www.maddogwines.com/’ Matthew said.

Mad Dog UK Review

Jamie Goode has written a review of the last 2 Mad Dog Shiraz releases (2005 & 2006) and it can be read on his web blog here: http://www.wineanorak.com/blog/2009/06/two-mad-dogs-from-barossa.html.

For those in the UK our 2005 is available from Corney and Barrow for 15.99 here (Corney and Barrow have not yet imported any 2006): http://www.corneyandbarrow.com/buywines/browsewinelist/search/?name=mad%20dog&fBrokered=-1.

In the meantime we are currently working on a web site that will enable our Australian customers to buy wine directly from us - this should be going live in the next 2-3 weeks. I will post a link when it is ready.

Mad Dog update

One of the reasons that this blog has not been updated as regularly as it should have been over the last few months, is that I have now taken over the day to day running of Mad Dog wines. I have been busy harvesting our next vintage and at the same time bottling our next exciting releases. We have now finished bottling and will be releasing our 2006 Shiraz and 2008 Sangiovese shortly. I will let you know how to get hold of them in a future post. One big change for this year is that our Shiraz is now packaged under a screw cap to ensure the wine gets to you exactly as we intended it to with none of the TCA issues that some of you have experienced in the past. We have our normal small volume of Shiraz and only a very, very small volume of our Sangiovese.

2006 Shiraz

This year is probably more typical of Barossa shiraz'. It is a little more full bodied and packs even more of a punch than previous releases. It has spent 18 months in a French oak. It will cellar for up to 10 years and will go really well with virtually any red meat dishes.

2008 Sangiovese

A very refreshing spice and fruit laden offering this year, with subtle hints of cherry. It has spent 6 months in quality French oak. Drink it soon - while it is at it's best! A lighter wine than our Shiraz but will go well with most meat dishes.

Weather for the month of November

Weather Report Month Ending 31/11/08

Maximum Temperature for the month 34.7C (94F) on Wed. 12th. Average for this month was 23.8C. 12 readings above our long term monthly average of 24.6C.

Minimum Temperature for the month 3.3C (38F) on Sun. 23rd. Average for this month was 10.3C. 14 readings above our long term monthly average of 10.7C.

Rainfall for the month 28.6mm (82 points) 12 days of rainfall recorded. Our long term average is 35.5mm spread over 7.5 days.

Weather data thanks to BOM & Nuriootpa Viticulture Research Centre.

A cool and relatively dry month for us, however we had more rainy days than our average. I am not sure if global warming is a reality or not, but we are certainly not getting the bigger dumps of rain that we used to get. We had 4 more rainy days than is average, however we recorded 7mm less rainfall.

This month in the vineyard:

I have had a very busy month! The vines have now all finished flowering and we now have fruit set. We have been doing estimates for our winery customers - so far it is looking like an average or just below year for the Barossa Valley as far as tonnes of grapes go. It's too early to tell what our quality will be like, however below average yields normally mean higher quality grapes. We have been maintaining our usual spray program for the prevention of Downy and Powdery mildew. I have also had to spread some snail bait to counteract increased numbers of white snails this year.

I have been kept busy with all the usual meetings and seminars that I seem to have to attend. The Barossa Valley Technical group held a very interesting seminar on crop estimation, that included some information on trellis tension as a guide to crop load. We are also now getting into the season of Christmas lunches, drinks etc.

I have now taken over the day to day running of Mad Dog wines. My sister and brother in law were running this however do not feel they can contribute enough time to do it justice. I am organizing to bottle our 2005 Shiraz and I am hoping to have it for sale early in the new year. I am currently looking for outlets here in Australia that would like sell our premium Barossa valley products.

Newest Member of the Mad Dog team

Mad Dog wines has a new team member. Patrick Charles Holmes came into the world a little early, but safely on 5th of Sept at just after 1:30pm in the Calvary hospital North Adelaide. He is Jeremy and Heidi Holme's second child and a baby brother for Lily. He is also my 2nd nephew. I suspect it will be a few years before we can let him loose on any of our premium Shiraz, but there is now another potential wine maker in the family.

Mad Dog 2005 Shiraz now on sale!

Two pieces of news this week from Mad Dog.

Since our last Mad Dog release we have appointed Corney and Barrow as our UK agent, they are indeed the fine wine supplier to the Queen.

We are excited to announce the release of our 2005 Mad Dog Shiraz. This is old vine (35-40 year old) fruit from our own family vineyard at Vine Vale, in the Barossa Valley. It is picked ripe but not overdone (this is 14.5% alcohol) and nestles in the best French oak (Damy coopered) for 18 months. The wine bursts with ripe blood plum and blackcurrant fruit and is tinged with some floral and spice notes. In the mouth it is dense and creamy with a heart of black fruits, liquorice and Belgium chocolate. It is fairly tightly wound on the finish with plenty of savoury notes adding to the long, dry finish. This is a great vintage from the Barossa and we are very happy with our 2005.

There is only very limited quantities of this wine available (we have shipped virtually all of our stocks to retailers). So if you find some for sale - snap it up, or you may miss out. If you are in Australia you can also order online at http://www.dortodoor.com/html/s02_article/article_view.asp?id=521&nav_cat_id=166&nav_top_id=58.

Mad Dog Sangiovese

Mad Dog wines announces the release of our 2006 Sangiovese. This very limited release is from a small trial planting of 250 vines we have had growing on our property for 10 years. This is the first commercial release of this fruit. We have shoot thinned and bunch thinned this block by hand to get the best wine possible. We are very pleased with the way it has turned out. Our wine making team says:

We affectionately call this wine MAD DOCG (with a silencio ‘C’) after the great savoury reds of Tuscany. It is made from Mad Dog’s 10 year old Valley floor Sangiovese, with yields restricted to well under 2 tonnes. The spice laden, wild cherry fruit character overlays a canvas of well seasoned, top notch French Oak. Should age well over the mid-term but we suggest you catch it while it’s showing all its youthful exuberance.

Because we only have a very limited quantity of this wine, if you would like to get hold of some, please, drop me an email (Kammunz(at)hotmail.com) letting me know where you are and I'll let you know how you can get hold of some.

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

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.

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.

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.