Vintage report, 2010

As bottling approaches, it is an appropriate time to review the vintage.

On KI, along with the majority of southern SA, we had ideal conditions right through the ripening period, and it seems general that the wines from the 2010 vintage will be of above average quality. The hot burst in November did create some problems in mainland vineyards, and also in some newer plantings over here, but the more mature vines coped very well, remembering of course, we do not see the extremes the mainland suffers.

Our Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay grapes were sourced from the Helyar vineyard, and apart from a minor issue with powdery in the Chardonnay, which we were able to remediate by selectively picking, our early expectations were that the Sauvignon Blanc was going to be an absolute standout, but inexplicably as we prepare to bottle, we find we have a wine as good (at least) as last years, but not in the top echelon. Both the whites are being picked from young vineyards, so there will be further character and intensity development as these vines mature. Certainly we are very happy with these two in terms of commercial appeal.

On the other hand, the reds are outstanding (older vines?), and at a recent barrel tasting at Boars Rock, Matt was extremely pleased with their continued development in barrel, "the best reds he's seen come from KI".

For those of you who have not been to the winery lately, we have further evolved our production processes so that we can give our grapes the best chance to fulfil their potential. To expand on this our vintage consists of, firstly for the whites-;

Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, machine picked in the early (cool) hours of the morning, with appropriate additions of sulphur dioxide (a natural antifungal, antioxidant) added to the bins during picking, to give protection through the crushing process.

After crushing the whites are pressed, and we take delivery of the cloudy, non clarified juice at Sunset. Immediately we refrigerate, and also obtain a full analysis, enabling any appropriate additions, normally tartaric acid, to occur asap.

2010 Cabernet in early stages of fermentation.

After 3-4 days the clear, and very pale, juice is taken off the top, and allowed to warm up prior to inoculating with the appropriate yeast strains, we then ferment slowly and really quite cool, the S/Bl in a 11 to 12.5 deg range the Chardy a degree warmer, In this type of ferment we can maximise the preservation of the (fragile) aromatics present in the juice.

At the completion of ferment, the wines are then shipped to Boars Rock for filtering and pre-bottling attention, aiming to bottle in early June.

The reds, both Shiraz and Cabernet, are delivered to Sunset after crushing, once again with Sulphur added at picking, and these are then fermented in our 3.5 tonne open fermenters, we had 3 happening concurrently this year, once again with some temp control, aiming for a ferment in the 22-28 deg range. For those who have not seen a red ferment in action, it is quite colourful, particularly when the cap is plunged (a minimum of 4 x daily) to keep it moist, and maximise colour extraction. We took some video of the process this year, some of these images will go up on the website.

After ferment the reds are pressed out, and the wine then shipped to Boars Rock for aging in our barrels in their temp controlled barrel store.

This tie up with the professional team at Boars Rock is the most significant step we've taken to produce the highest quality wine we can from the grapes we source, I'm sure you'll agree as we go further down the track. This year also, we bought reds (Shiraz) from the Florance vineyard near Cygnet River, and we have high hopes for the wine from them, now in barrel at Boars Rock.

As ever, I am more than happy to discuss any aspects of our operation with any members who'd like to call, 0408393991.

All the best,
Colin.

Member :

Kangaroo Island Grapegrowers
& Winemakers Association