Henschke Vintage Report 2012 Part 3

Henschke Vintage Report 2012 Part 3

We are now three weeks into vintage and we certainly have the sights, sounds (and smells) of a hands- on working winery. It’s always enjoyable to see the old 1950s concrete fermenters full of fruit, bubbling away. The past two weeks have seen them nearly all full of small parcels of shiraz from the Tappa Pass, Light Pass and Stockwell sub-region, now they are all empty having had the free-run drained off and the skins hand shoveled and pressed my our hard-working cellar hands and vintage casuals. This year we have Brendan, whose family own Gehringer Brothers Estate in Okanagan Canada and Frenchman Henri, who has done vintages in France, Canada, USA and the Adelaide Hills. We also have Eran from Israel who is assisting Prue out in the vineyard; it’s always good to bring some international diversity to Eden Valley!

We also have seen some spectacular fruit coming in from our Lenswood vineyard; Sauvignon blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Pinot noir have all been hand-picked this week and are showing superb fruit flavours and the crisp acidity we expect from Adelaide Hills fruit.

With the onset of some warmer weather over the next few weeks we are expecting to see more red varieties coming into the winery and filling up the old fermenters again – the cellars hands can expect some more hard work ahead!