autumn-winter 2025

year of the wood snake

2025 is marked by the return of dry season , and as I write these lines Central Victoria is looking very dry and hasn’t received much rain for almost a year . Vintage was impacted by these dry conditions , which started with a small frost alert at Vaughan Springs , then early flowering in general , leading to an early ripening. January saw some hot days in low 40’s temperatures and quiet windy adding to the desiccation of the plants .Picking started on the 8th of February with Fiano which was carrying a low crop, followed by the Mourvèdre and Nebbiolo for rosé . All grapes from Colbinabbin were picked in February , except Greco which had a bigger crop than usual, picked on the 4th of March .The last grapes to come in were the syrah from Vaughan Springs picked on the 8th of March . Cooling was quite crucial during fermentation , and most ferment started quite well naturally . The quality of the reds is probably higher than the whites this year , as we noticed less acidity in most grapes.The rosé , Nebbiolo and syrah are now maturing whilst greco and Fiano are still fermenting , slowly . We just bottled the small amount of NOUVEAU, fresh crunchy Mourvèdre which can be chilled , celebrating the new vintage , only 25 doz. available .

After an attempt to make more vin de paille last year with Arinto grapes , which we left too long(6 months) on the straw and collected only 45L from 1 t of grapes , in 2025 we dried some greco for about 6 weeks with success . The drying period has been very short compared to 2019(4.5 months), mostly due to better natural ventilation and the very dry weather .There is now 1 barrel and a demi John fermenting, the result will be coming in 2 years more or less .

THE image of vintage is probably the moment of musical fermentation created by the unique air lock designed by artist Cameron Robbins .This created a viral response on instagram with more than 600k views .

Stay safe and drink well .

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please visit the wine store ,here, to find out more about these wines . Sante, Gilles.