The Firsts Frosts of Autumn, Time for the Vines to Rest and Shutdown

After another relatively lengthy season, today we saw the first of what I am sure will be many frosts of Autumn/Winter 2018, signalling to the vines that their job is done for another vintage. At this stage of the year, we love the frost, the cooler the better, to help the vines truly shut down and to naturally kill off some of the pests in our organic and biodynamic vineyards.  Last year we got as low as -8, this year, who knows.

We expect we will see the last of the leaves fall during the coming week. For some, that will signal the start to another season with pruning, but for us, we will hold out until July or perhaps August to ensure that the vines have extracted the last of the nutrients from the 2018 growing season. 

It is a beautiful time to be in the Barossa, the fires in the local homes, restaurants and gathering spots will be lit for another year. What a time for big reds and port. Lovely!