Vintage 2008

Last weekend saw Andrew Osborne and family return to "Mulgrave Heights" for the annual "pruning of the vines fiesta" This is serious work, with our wheelie bin filled to capacity.
Every year we think we have overdone it, but each year both vines spring back, strong and vigorous.

On tasting this years vintage (I have been slack and they have not been bottled) the wine had an excellent bouquet, was fruity on the tongue but a very "muddy" back palate. Almost ready to tip it down the drain, I took a sample to be professionally tested (I wanted to see if I could turn it into red wine vinegar).

To my surprise the results are that the wine is chemically near perfect. pH 3.3 (desired range 3.0 - 3.4), alcohol content 7%. The diagnosis:

• our soil is heavy clay and as such the vine is short some minerals - a drop of copper sulphate removed the "muddy" taste
• our vine is probably a table grape (yet to be formally identified), but the experts were surprised at the quality of what we had produced (pity they didn't try last years! - our best so far).

They suggested 2 remedies for this vintage

• adding caster sugar to each bottle -sounds like cheating to me :)
• blending with a sweet wine such as Lambrusco - using ours as a base

I will try the latter suggestion to save this years vintage.

Rie's Kitchen is official!

I have registered the business name of "Rie's Kitchen" and all the paperwork is beginning to fall into place. I have formalised the financial setup, and I am very close to finalising a deal with a commercial kitchen to allow me to start production (once council approval has been finalised). Rie's kitchen is probably still 3 months away from being "on the shelves" but it is beginning to look less like a hobby and more like a business.

... and yesterday I purchased 150 jars as I have more oranges arriving next week - so more marmalade on the way :)