Vintage 2008 - the launch

I am pleased to announce the launch of 2008 Vintage from Mulgrave Heights.

And did you notice the groovy "zorks" capping the bottles. A very clever little closer that seals the bottle and can be easily removed (but not recapped). At less than A$0.50 a great Aussie invention for the small producer like me - no machines required, just a rubber mallet and gentle persuasion :)

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.

Mulgrave Heights - our vines

Much speculation has occurred as to the variety of our vines. as yet, I have been unable to definitively categorise their variety. Both vines were well established when my partner Myles and I, bought the house in 2000.

The vines are prolific producers. In 2007, we picked over 40kgs of grape from the north facing vine alone! The bunches are large, often greater than 40 cm in length and weigh up to 750gms -1 kg each. This vine is netted ever year. Due to the position of the westerly vine (against the garage wall and inside a raised vegetable patch,) the westerly vine is left to the birds and possums, with us coming a distinct 3rd.

The grapes have a deep purple skin, a white fruit and small seeds. They are not fabulous as a table grape, but we certainly eat a few as we pick them :)

Mulgrave Heights 2008 Vintage

Our back garden hosts 2 grape vines, both of the same variety (as yet unknown). One vine sits on the garage wall and is westerly facing, the second and larger vine is located on the northern fence line. Both vines are approximately 25 years old.

This year, the westerly vine had a small infestation of vine mite and as such none of the grapes were used for wine production. The northerly vine was infestation free.

With the assistance of our winemaker, Andrew Osborne (Ossy), and his 2 year old daughter Charleah, the grapes were harvested on March 9th 2008. 10.5 litres of must was achieved. Due to the unusually hot temperatures experienced that day (34) we were unable to second crush the skins or keep the must on skin for any period of time. Despite this, the must in 2008 has a much deeper colour than previous vintages.

We transferred the must from the 20 litre flask, to 2x4litre flask on 12th April. At this time our Specific Gravity was 950. Now the chemistry lessons I missed in high school become useful!