News From Our Adelaide Hills Vineyard & Winery
Our seasonal newsletters take you behind the scenes of our small-batch winery – and offer you first look at all our wines as we release them. You can join our mailing list here.
Seasonal newsletter archive
Autumn 2023
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To celebrate our 35th anniversary, we’ve searched our cellar and released a very special museum wine: our 2012 White Label Pinot Noir. It’s looking sensational. Only 250 bottles left!
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Our 2021 vintages have been sent off for bottling. Keep an eye out for their release in the June newsletter.
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A cool summer meant the winery took a while to warm up enough to heat our 2022 barrels, but these wines are now through malo fermentation — finally.
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The cool and dry season has delayed grape ripening. They've only started to hit veraison now — about three or four weeks later than average.
Summer 2023
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A delayed summer has also meant delays on our vines – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We're predicting a 2023 vintage with slightly bitter tannins, bright colour and a finer acid.
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We’ve tasted our 2021 vintage and are ready for bottling. We won’t produce a Monopole label from our 2021 harvest, but our White Label is looking very special.
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We’ll also be bottling our 2022 Le Gris de Noir soon. Look out for updates on the release date.
December 2022
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Our top-quality 2019 Monopole Pinot Noir is now released – only 340 bottles were produced. And, our 2018 Monopole is almost sold out, with only 10 bottles left.
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Monopole is our most premium Pinot Noir wine. Produced from unirrigated 25-year-old vines, the resulting very low yields give our Monopole concentration, structure and the ability to age for 15+ years.
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In the vineyard, we've had our wettest winter and spring since 1982! This has delayed flowering on our vines, but we’re hoping for excellent fruit quality for the 2023 vintage.
Spring 2022
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The three new wines we released in June are selling fast — in fact, the 2020 Black Label Pinot Noir is already sold out!
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We’ve finished converting our old vineyard from spur to cane pruning. This technique will create fewer leaves and bigger grape bunches with better sunlight exposure — excellent for wine quality.
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Our dam filled and overflowed three times this winter, meaning our ground water supplies are replenished, the grasses in our vineyard are healthy and Whisson Lake is ready for warmer months and another beautiful harvest.
Winter 2022
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Three new wines released for you, including our favourite vintage of Le Gris de Noir so far (a white wine made from Pinot grapes), plus a 2019 White Label Pinot Noir and a 2020 Black Label Pinot Noir.
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We’ve finished our 2022 vintage — the largest amount of wine we’ve made since 2011, as we’re now keeping most of what we grow instead of selling it to other winemakers.
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Our predictions for the 2022 vintage? A slightly lower alcohol percentage and some fine and delicate flavours, with fantastic colours and amazing tannins.
Autumn 2022
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We’re full-steam-ahead into our busiest time of the year, as the annual grape harvest begins while we also send our 2020 wines off to be bottled.
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A new mini film has just been released, telling the story of Whisson Lake! It beautifully showcases our steep vineyard and low-impact approach to winemaking.
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We dived into our museum stock and released a 2012 White Label Pinot Noir – after 10 years in the bottle, it is approaching its peak.
Summer 2021
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Our tiny business goes national with an exciting new distribution deal.
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Barrel tasting of our 2020 wines confirms we will release a 2020 Monopole (our most premium Pinot), hooray!
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A cool start to the season has delayed flowering, with the cooler weather likely to result in lighter-colour wines with savoury notes and a very elegant flavour.
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We've converted more of 36-year-old spur pruned vines to cane pruning – an expensive and slow process that will yield improved vine health, longevity and grape quality.
Spring 2021
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We release two delicious single-barrel Monopole Pinot Noir wines to you - one from 2017 and the other from 2018.
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Our recent Pinot Masterclass and four-course lunch at Stem Bar and Restaurant was such fun – thanks to all who came along.
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Our vines are some of the oldest in the region (they were planted in 1985), so we’ve been busy fixing trellis posts and renewing our vine's cordons.
Winter 2021
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Limited cases of our 2019 Black Label Pinot Noir and 2018 White Label Pinot Noir released for you to taste.
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Our 2021 grape harvest is finally complete – now it’s time to make the wine (using wild ferments, as always).
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In the name of research, we've grafted an experimental Pinot clone onto some of our existing vines. (Which clone exactly? That's top-secret for now...)
