Stefano Lubiana 2012 Part 4
Diary note for March 22nd, 2012
You get what you deserve. And weather events aside, it’s the same story in the wine world. Quality viticulture lays the groundwork for quality wine.
That’s been very much in evidence today at Stefano Lubiana Wines as our hardworking vineyard and vintage teams picked and processed close to 8 tonnes of Chardonnay and almost 9 tonnes of Pinot Grigio from our 25ha Granton Vineyard, 20km north of Hobart.
Too bad the State Government’s Aurora Energy company robbed us of a few hours of work time, thanks to the two major power outages we experienced during the late morning and early afternoon!
Harvesting once again was certainly a relief. The rain that had been forecast throughout the week hardly touched us, apart from a few short sharp showers on Wednesday. Our pickers enjoyed bright sunny weather for their day among the vines. Ground conditions were still dry and firm under foot, so there was never a chance that were going to see anything other than an orderly procession of harvesting taking place as people moved up and down our vine rows.
Again, the volumes weren't quite what we were expecting or hoping for this year, but the fruit quality is superb. The Pinot Grigio in particular looked magic stuff. Prior to joining Steve and Monique in 2010, I worked 10 years as the wine columnist for The Examiner in Tasmania. During that time, I spent many hours taking photos of vineyard harvests, and I’ve never seen the Pinot Grigio looking as spectacular as it did today. Barely a berry anywhere that wasn’t perfectly formed and ripened. Amazing.
Steve has never looked as relaxed as he has this vintage. Monique says she puts that down to having Mark Hoey now carrying on the role of vineyard manager. Mark worked with us briefly a couple of years ago, and after selling his family’s vineyard and home in South Australia he’s become a resident here, along with his wife Emily and small tribe of kids.
Managing a vineyard in a cool, marginal winegrowing environment like ours is a big ask of anyone working in viticulture. It’s something of a high wire act most years. Doing it biodynamically is akin to working the wires without a safety net. One wrong move and your season can come crashing down around you.
Likewise, having seasoned vineyard hands James Tubb and Jamie Lee on site to help deliver the goods during vintage is fantastic. As much as our winemaking team would like to bask in the glory of having five of James Halliday’s coveted red stars in several recent editions of his Australian Wine Companion, the truth is we wouldn’t get a single star if our vineyard crew wasn’t doing its job properly. Yep, you get what you deserve.
Thumbs up from our 2012 vintage team
After cooling their heels for 10 days – and carrying out the less glamorous tasks of bottling, packaging, and cleaning – today our team of young international winemakers finally got another crack at doing what they do best. Making wine.
Gavin Robertson (from Ontario, Canada) and Daniel Schmitt (from the Rheinhessen in Germany) spent most of their time on site managing the triage table, sorting fruit and helping to oversee its intake to the press.
Just as it sounds, our triage table is set up for unhealthy fruit and the odd bit of leaf litter that comes in from the vineyard. But unlike the triage centre at your local hospital, there’s no life support given here. Any fruit that looks suspect as it comes along the conveyer – either damaged, diseased or unripe fruit – gets a swift despatch to the bin and eventually goes to the great big vineyard in the sky. (Actually, it goes to our biodynamic composting program, but that’s another story.)
Today’s fruit was fabulous. Out of the 17 tonnes processed, we got barely a bucket of damaged berries and just a few heaps of leaves. Dolmades anyone???
Tyler Eck (from California, USA) spent his day liaising with our vineyard workers, and got to throw a few buckets over the vines from time to time. That may not have been winemaking per se, but vintage is all about getting the best results that you can from the season. Remember, you get what you deserve!
PS We’ve been posting photos of vintage 2012 on our Flickr pages. You’ll find them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefano_lubiana_wines/
Vineyard Manager Mark Hoey
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