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Halliday awards Winburndale 4½ stars
In his most recent Australian Wine Companion (2008 edition), Australia’s pre-eminent wine writer, James Halliday has awarded Winburndale Wines 4½ stars – a classification he describes as “Excellent winery able to produce wines of high to very high quality, knocking on the door of a 5-star rating.”
2005 Solitary Gold at Sydney Royal Show
Our 2005 Solitary Shiraz was the only NSW red wine to win a gold medal at Australia’s best wine show, the Sydney Royal.
Winter Winery Wander
In July, the Bathurst convivium of Slow Food held its Winter Winery Wander. Five busloads of food and wine aficionados set off to visit four wineries in turn. Here at Winburndale, Michael from Treehouse restaurant cooked trout remoulade, venison on couscous and finally pear in Chardonnay. Everyone had a great time.
Our first export order
This month we will send off our first export order of 100 cases of wine to Denmark. Australian wine is very highly regarded in Scandinavia.
Book Launch at Winburndale
Fiona Ogilvie is the gardening writer for The Land newspaper, and will launch her new book, A Country Garden, with a tour of her beautiful garden followed by lunch here at Winburndale
Outstanding show results for the 2005 Solitary
This is a fabulous wine, and has done very well at all of the shows where it has been entered. The record is 6 Trophies, 5 Gold medals and 2 Bronze medals.
US winemaker at Winburndale
We were happy to welcome Karen Hand, from the US who
came out for 6 weeks to help with the 2006 vintage.
Karen is the winemaker at Owl Creek vineyard in southern
Illinois. Karen particularly liked the shiraz, a variety
not commonly grown in her part of the world.
Wedding at Winburndale
Our first wedding celebration at Winburndale was that
of our son, Matthew to his partner Carol. The wedding
was at the Cathedral in Bathurst followed by a reception
for 150 guests at the vineyard. Of course our wines
were popular and in demand.
Newsletter
Our first newsletter for 2006 is now available. It can
be downloaded from this site
or mailed on request. If you haven't already read our
earlier newsletters they are available in the archive
on this site, or on request.
Launch of 2004 reds
We are pleased to advise that the 2004 reds featured
in the tasting notes are now available. You can order
on-line, by phone or fax. We will also soon advise retail
outlets where they are available
Bathurst and Winburndale
feature in Winewise
Lester Jesberg is the publisher and editor of Winewise,
a magazine now in its 22nd year. In the latest issue
he notes that "Bathurst is on the way up. Barrel samples
of 2005 shiraz from Winburndale were particularly impressive"
See www.winewise.net.au
Bottling 2005 reds
Portavin sent over their mobile bottling line, and on
March 29&30 we bottled 1,850 cases of the 2005 reds.
These will now be allowed to develop in the bottle until
release early in 2007.
2006 vintage is over
We started picking Chardonnay on March 16 and finished
with the last of the Cabernet Sauvignon on April 25.
The early ripening varieties, Chardonnay and Shiraz
came in two weeks earlier than last year and look very
good. We had to wait for the Merlot and Cabernet franc,
but both look quite good. The Cabernet Sauvignon was
late and we waited until the last minute to get physiological
ripeness. All are now in barrel, and we will look at
them again in the spring.
Tasting
We have had a number of groups for tasting recently
including a book club and two groups of architects.
We are happy to accommodate groups, and if you would
like a lunch, just give us a weeks notice.
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