For Barossa Growers, Vintage 2018 is drawing to an end, pretty much all of the shiraz and Grenache has been picked, and most if not all of the Mataro is still on the vine (we have the Ebenezer Grenache to pick tomorrow and the Mataro in a few weeks). Probably means there is about 1 month to go before the vines, and there growers, can take a long overdue rest. For the Winemakers it is a different story, with plenty of ferments underway and more to come.

At Hayes Family Wines, we have about 10 different ferments underway, with our first Shiraz and Grenache pressed and likely to go to barrel tomorrow. The others will follow over the coming week. It seems many weeks since we picked the first of our Semillon and the old vine Grenache for the rose, but those wines are ready for bottling and will be put down the line during April and will be released later this year. Both wines look excellent, with freshness and lighter alcohol, they will be a great hit over spring and summer.

Overall, the fruit looks excellent, with beautiful colour, perfume and structure. This is looking like a great vintage in the making albeit for a generally bolder style of red.

Tomorrow we are picking our very old Ebenezer bush vine Grenache. Great old vines that are and always have been dry grown. They produce the most wonderful fruit, but for a person 6 feet high, I really wish that they had learnt to grow a little taller in there youth some 100 years ago. The fruit I am sure will be worth it.