Cool Climate Viticulture
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Our Winderdoon vineyard
Growing Pinot Noir in the cool climate region of the Tamar Valley is a most challenging past time.
We have 50 vines that were planted in 2001. They bore fruit for the first time in 2004-2005and produced about 40 kg of fruit. This is about 1/3 of what we would expect when the vines are fully mature. The growing season in Tasmania is from September to April. 2005 was a dry summer with a long sunny Autumn, perfect for ripening the fruit. The grapes from this vineyard were harvested on March 20th. Sugar levels in the grapes measured 22 brix with TA at 9.4 and pH at 3.4. The leaf canopy had suffered severe damage from a wind storm in mid January and I was worried that the grapes would not ripen further to raise sugar levels much further.
The grapes were harvested and de-stemmed. They were crushed and allowed to commence fermentation on the skins at 23degrees Celsius after an introduction of Lalvin EC1118 yeast. Temperatures during the fermentation period varied from 24-25 degrees, maintained with an aquarium heater inserted in the must. When the must reached a specific gravity of 0.005 after 10 days, it was pressed using a basket press and the 24 litres of juice fermented to dryness with an airlock. When the wine reached a level of 0.000 a malolactic culture was added to reduce the Total Acidity of the wine. After a further 20 days the wine was racked into a 20 litre carboy and an airlock fitted to prevent air entry. The wine was aged until October 2005 and bottled just prior to the 2006 season harvest.
2006 fruit is smaller than normal with tight berry clusters. The subsequent skin to berry ratio is higher and has given the wine a rich plum colour with good berry flavours of raspberry.
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4 year old vines with mature berries
2006 Vintage
The 2005-2006 season was wet to start with good rains in September and October. The vines were irrigated to keep the canopy growing vigorously. Vines had been pruned to 16 buds VSP on 2 canes and each shoot set 2 bunches of fruit. A new product on the market, Charlie Carp, was used as a foliar spray between spraying for Downy and Powdery Mildew. This provided foliar nutrient to the vines which grew strong with excellent fruit set. A moderate summer and warmer than usual February and March brought sugar levels up quickly. Grape samples reached 23 brix , pH 3.5 and TA 0f .68 on March 18th.
Grapes were crushed and placed in food grade plastic carboys for fermentation. The vines produced 100kg of outstanding fruit this year. 50ppm of SO2 was added to the must and left overnight prior to the introduction of EC1118 Lalvin yeast. Temperature was initially 20c and during fermentation rose to an average of 28c. Colour extraction was very good in the earlier stages of the primary fermentation. The must was pressed after 12 days on the skins and produced 70litres of wine. The primary fermentation was completed by April 5th. As I was away after this time, I did not introduce a malolactic bacteria which had not occurred due to the casks being new. When temperatures averaged 15 degrees consistently in September I introduced 5 litres of the wine that had been innoculated with a malolactic culture. This allowed fermentation to complete by end of September, after which the wine was racked and then bottled.
2006 vintage has excellent berry fruit on the palate and a long finish. It is an excellent wine and should age well if we keep away from it.
The crush
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Primary Fermentation |
Pressing |
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Bottling |
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2007 Vintage
A dry mild winter saw pruning completed by mid June with a Scott Henry trellis being constructed to control the observed vigor in the canopy growth of 2006.
Bud burst was in mid September followed by a period of extremely low temperatures in the early morning. Forecasts of -2 degrees with frost in most districts made me embark on a plan of vigilance and climate control to protect the young shoots from frost damage in the early morning. I lit a brazier in the middle of the vineyard and kept it going all night. I then started my drip irrigation at 4:30am each morning to raise the temperature of the soil. I was fortunate to escape with no frost damage, although vineyards over the river on the higher slopes suffered frost damage of about 1/3 of the normal crop yield. The Scott Henry system allowed 32 buds on each vine and I have had an excellent fruit set on all vines. I expect the yield to be up by 50% , potentially yielding $200 kg of good quality fruit.
At this stage ( early March) it looks like vintage will be 2 weeks early again and I am expecting to harvest on about March 20th
Vintage notes:
Sugar levels were right in mid March , but I chose to allow the grapes to mature on the vine for another week. We harvested our crop on March 22nd.
Levels at Harvest:
Specific Gravity = 1.105= 24.7 Brix = 13.7% potential alcohol by volume
TA: .08
pH 3.4
Potentially a sound wine.. After primary fermentation this wine is undergoing a malolactic fermentation. First tasting of the new wine was great. Another great year in the vintage despite conditions that could have potentially devistated the yield .
"God makes wine. Only the ungrateful or the pure blind can fail to see that sugar in the grape and yeast on the skins is a divine idea, not a human one."
-Father Robert Capon, The Supper of the Lamb
Racking Notes:
On second racking, this young wine definitely is again a fruit forward natural product of the season. Bottling will take place in mid November after malolactic fermentation has had a chance to fully complete in the rising temperatures of Spring.
Oak aging was achieved by hanging an amount of French Oak chips in each cask for a period of 3 weeks. Tastings were taken periodically and the chips withdrawn when the flavour was right.
A near disaster occurred in mid August when a wind storm took out the pole to my makeshift cellar- a tent.
Thanks to the quick actions of my wife, the pole was restored and no damage was done to the airlocks and the new wine.
We have told the story many times that I happened to ring from my southern Tasmanian base in the middle of this drama and asked the very dumb question " Where are you?" . I did get an earful.
The wine was bottled in November and late December. The product is wonderful and I am very proud of this new wine. Very little of this Pinot will reach old age; not because of any defect in the vintage , but because of demand from consumers.
Vintage 2008
Winter again was mild and very dry. The Spring brough good rains in late August and bud burst in mid September brought on rapid growth.
Sooner or later an amateur viticulturalist and wine maker is bound to take good seasons for granted and make a mistake.
I made the mistake this year of not consistently applying my spraying program for Powdery Mildew. This disease is inherent in wine grapes and must be controlled throughout the season with a variety of sprays. Using the same spray too often tends to build up a resitance to the disease, but the must about management is consistent spraying at 10 day intervals or more often if rain washes the chemical from the vines. We are trying to create an environment that inhibits the groeth of powdery mildew. Specific note son the control of this disease can be found at sites such as here. (Dep't Primary Industry Queensland)
The result was an outbreak of powdery mildew as temperatures rose to 20C that I was unable to control. I tried to use a new product on the market, Ecocarb, which raises the pH of the leaf and tissueof the vine so that the mildew cannot survive.It claims to actually kill the mildew.Having a small number of vines, I decided to indivdually treat them all. The result was far from satisfactory and the harvest suffered with about 50% of the grapes being affected by the Powdery mildew in either poor ripening or shrivelled appearence. I chose not to harvest this fruit and chose only the very best bunches for this year's vintage.
Fortunately a friend in a commercial vineyard locally had a number of Pinot Gris vines that had been planted at about the same time as mine and which bore black fruit. I was able to obtain this fruit and ferment it seperately. The blend of my 100 litres of Pinot Noir combined with the 130 lires of Pinot Gris will form the basis of a Grisnoir vintage this year.
Vintage Notes:
Pinot Noir : Harvest Date: March 28th
Levels at Harvest:
Specific Gravity = 1.105= 24.7 Brix = 13.7% potential alcohol by volume
TA: .09
pH 3.3
Pinot Gris: Harvest Date April 12th
Levels at Harvest:
Specific Gravity= 1.105 =24 Brix= 13.7% potential alcohol by volume
TA: 07
pH 3.4
I chose to ferment both wines on the skins for 10 days to extract the very best tannins the grapes could offer.
50ppm of SO2 was added at crush to kill natural yeast on the grapes.
We now have a destemmer crusher, so the pics above of footpress vintages are no longer adding flavour to the wine.
Both wines were innoculated with malolactic bacteria after primary fermentation slowed and temperatures were above 20C.
Secondary fermentation lasted about 10 days.
Wines were racked in May before adding oak chips for 3 weeks.
Wines were racked again in August.