Lara's blog

We are getting into the festive spirit here at Aldersyde! 

Order a dozen 2008 Merlot before 1 January 2012 and receive $25 off the regular case price. This means that from now until the new year the 2008 Merlot is only $150 per case.

Merry Christmas everyone! 

I am in the process of grafting over another row of chardonnay to malbec. While to many professional grafters this is a fast and painless task, for me it takes quite a bit of time. But I do love doing it. I love seeing a new life spring from old. This is now my 3rd season of grafting, so I think I am getting better and faster. For me the trick is to make sure the bud I cut from the cane (stored over winter in the fridge) is cut clean and straight so it can fit exactly into the chip in the old vine without any light exposed between the bud and the trunk. Normally if I take time to match the bud to the wood, the strike rate is over 98%. If, however, you quickly bandage the bud in because Sunday roast lamb is waiting on the verandah table along with friends and family and a few bottles of red, you only have yourself to blame..

Here is a pic taken while I was out in the vineyard grafting over the weekend. It is a sea of green in the vineyard at the moment! 

Just back from vintage at Chateau Chambert in Cahors working with malbec and my head is still full of French words .. and my stomach full of French cheese! Ah, la belle France!! If only it didn't entail such a hellishly long flight!

For those who don't know, Cahors is about 2 hours east of Bordeaux and is a region where malbec is king. I wanted to learn more about this underrated grape variety, especially as each year our own small planting of malbec shines with personality and flavour. I wanted to learn what the variety looked and tasted like in Cahors and to steal some winemaking tricks. How can I aspire to make good malbec without paying homage to one of the best regions in the world for malbec? 

Chateau Chambert is one of the most beautiful estates in the region, with its chateau overlooking the domain's vineyards. And the people in it are some of the most generous and kind people I've worked with, with a wicked sense of humour! I miss you all already - Vincent, Charles, Sylvie, Renne, Loulou, Amande, Bernard and Philippe je vous attends en Australie!! 

We crushed malbec for about 10 days, 8am-10pm, then the fermentation regime began in earnest. Like most French producers I've worked with, Chambert believes in post ferment maceration. We looked for "gras" or fatness on the palate - when those sometimes astringent tannins plateau out and develop roundness on the palate. 

Although still suffering jetlag, I couldn't help but go down into the cellar and compare our wines against the wines I've been tasting and working with in France for the past month. I was happy to see our chardonnay looking bright yet complex - I will start preparing it for bottling shortly. Our malbec looks entirely different to Cahors! Ours is lifted violets and raspberry/plum fruits with a focus on fruit on the palate whereas Cahors tends to have more savoury tannins and an entirely different acid profile. It will be interesting to see how my malbec 2012 will look in light of the techniques learnt from my vintage in Cahors.

Bottling is my least favourite part of the winemaking process. Any mistakes at this late stage are critical to the wine and have the potential to destroy all that work in the vineyard, during vintage, maturation and in preparing the wines for bottling. It is a time when I am very particular about how my wines must be treated. It is a time for analysis and control.

This year we decided to take more control over the bottling process by taking our wines down to state of the art winery, Mandoon, where we arranged for Maurice and Peter of MAP Bottling with their portable bottling and packaging line to bottle our wines. It was a delight to work with such professional people who cared about the product in such a beautiful facility. Uncle Ray, Aunty Lee, Mum, Tetka Beka, Ujak Milic, Pat and Roger made excellent bottling line staff. We were finished by 2pm rather than the expected 5pm!

Although I find it hard to look at my wines after bottling - after they are warped and pumped and crammed through filters - I think the 2010 reds as a whole show bright red berry fruit rather than the darker mulberry/plum spectrum of the 2008s.

As I write, the truck is bringing back our cartons of wine to our winery where they will recover for 18-24 months before we release them. It gives me great pleasure to walk through our storage rooms and see these wines resting only 10 metres from the vines from which they originated. There is a nice synergy in that, I think.

So vintage 2010 is finally laid to rest, ready for your appraisal in a few years time.

Who would have thought we would have no pink left to celebrate the first day of Spring?! Tis a sad but true fact. Our next rose will not be available until at least June next year. Our apologies to those customers who enjoy our rose especially over summer. We will try to make a little more next year to keep everyone happy.

Thank you to everyone who helped to make our birthday anniversary so successful last weekend. While the weather was not ideal on Saturday, we couldn't have hoped for a better day on Sunday. We had a great time catching up with everyone and meeting new people. To our new customers, we hope you realise you are now part of the Aldersyde clan!! And while we were sorry that our eastern states friends couldn't join us, thank you for your kind words and support.

Finally, congratulations to the piromaniacs in the Clan who managed to get a sodden bonfire up and away! Impressive feat.

Thank you for making it such a special day.

See you next year ... the first Sunday of July!