Cold is not the word for it.

Freezing more likely. But the look of snow covering the vineyard was worth it. The whole place took on a European look. It goes to show that we really are a 'cool' climate here in Bathurst. I am sure the vines are glad they are dormant, and so are we. True dormancy gives the vines a chance to rest with minimal metabolic activity. And it is now time for us to prune.

Star couple meet star wines

Layne Beachley and Kirk Pengilly dropped by to taste some of our wines. They were doing a short tour of the Central Ranges, sampling the best on offer. They came for an hour and stayed for two, and were really delightful company. They told us the very amusing story of how they met and gave us permission to tell other visitors to the tasting room. For the record, Layne loved the reds, especially the 2008 Fontana and Solitary, and Kirk really enjoyed the Risque Rose.

Roll out the Barrel

And we did just that when we entertained 200 people at the annual Winter Winery Wander in our new barrel room. Just in time we finished the kitchen and toilet facilities. Mike was seen finishing the tiling the evening before our guests arrived.

Now that we have about 150 barrels, it is time we had a decent place to keep them. The bonus is that we have room for entertaining decent numbers of people and for functions. We have also added a landscaped courtyard between the tasting room and the barrel room with a bar-b-cue area. We would love you to come and have a look.

Bloody glad that's over

Vintage started for us on March 19 and didn't finish until the end of May. We ended up picking grapes when it was only 2 degrees. The cause of the long vintage was the many cloudy days in autumn. This slowed down ripening, especially of the red wines. To help the situation along, we picked all of the red grape vines twice. In the first pick, we took off what we judged to be the grapes of lesser quality, leaving the others to have a better chance to ripen. We were rewarded with some excellent Shiraz, albeit a smaller amount than usual, and some Cabernet that looks terrific. Everything is now in barrel and we will have to wait to see how it develops.

Newsletter special

2007 Lost and Found Shiraz Cabernet. Back to the old Price. $15.00 per bottle, or on special at $12.50 per bottle in a six pack. Great value for a wine that is drinking beautifully right now.

Fontana Cabernet wins top award

The Australian Small Winemakers Show is for wineries that produce wine from less than 500 tonnes of grapes annually. At Winburndale we produce about 50 tonnes, so we were delighted to learn that we had been awarded the Champion Red Wine Trophy at that show. There were almost a thousand red wines entered, and to stand out against some really excellent wines is a great thrill.

We first had to win our class with the top gold medal against the other 2008 cabernets, and then go on to be judged against all of the other top red wines to take out the trophy.

It has taken us quite a while to get to this stage with our Cabernet. We planted the vines in 1999, but it was not until 2008 that we judged them sufficiently mature to make a straight Cabernet sauvignon.

The 2008 grapes were hand picked, fermented in open fermenters, and placed in new French Oak – 50 per cent new, 30 per cent one and 20 per cent two-year old wood. The wine spent 14 months on wood, due to fruit intensity.

The wine shows concentrated flavours of sultanas and black currants, with finely integrated smooth tannins. Fontana is a perfect match for roast beef, game and duck.

 

 

What a Show Season

4 Trophies and 22 medals in 2010. Now we have a problem. Where do we put them? More seriously though, this shows that we are really making some very fine wines. We are building on our previous success (8 Trophies and 51 medals up until the end of 2009).

In addition to the trophy and gold medal for the 2008 Fontana, we were also awarded the following:

Champion Shiraz Trophy and Champion Central Ranges Trophy for our 2009 Solitary Shiraz. This wine also won one gold, two silver and two bronze medals

Two gold medals for the 2009 Fontana Cabernet

Various silver and bronze medals for the 2009 Alluvial Chardonnay, 2008 Solitary Shiraz and 2008 and 2009 Lost & Found Shiraz Cabernet.

New tasting room

There have been a lot of changes at Winburndale. To make way for the new winery and barrel room (planned for next year), we have built a new tasting room and adjacent office. As with all of our building, we built this ourselves. When I say we, I have to include many (nearly all) of the family. In particular, I have to thank Helen's brother, John, and brother-in-law, Tim, who were the real builders – right from design stage to finish.

Along the way, we had help from John's friend Terrance (dynabolt) Robertson any my mate from Mooloolaba, Laird (scaffolding) Mc Allister. Over Easter, many of the family were part of the team. Helen's brother Robert, our son Matthew, our son-in law, Simon, our daughter Anna's friend Gino, our niece J’aimee’s friend Tim. The cheer squad and chief building inspection team was led by Helen, supported by Emma, Anna, Carol, Denise, Claire, Trish & J’aimee

Restaurants

We highly recommend the restaurants that feature our wines.

Bathurst	Cobblestone Lane
	9inety2wo
	Piper's Bistro
	LeGall Patisserie
	Absolutely Delicious
	Church Bar
Blue Mountains	Restaurant Como
	Carrington
	Blue Hour Café
	Restaurant Tomah
Melbourne	Vincents
	Curves Bar & Restaurant