Latest News From Smidge Wines
Week 23: Week in Review
The start of winter was true to its name this week, with heavy rain and extensive electrical storms filling the air with nitrogen and the soil with water. The vines unfortunately won't benefit from the nitrogen without their leaves, although will enjoy the soil moisture in spring upon budburst and early growth.
As a micro producer, it means we are hands on at each stage of production and sales. So between some packing and deliveries we found ourselves bottling our La Grenouille Cabernet this week.
Rounding out the weekend was our monthly cellar door opening, where we got to share a few winter warmers with local wine enthusiasts!
13/06/2023 at 6:14 PM
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Week 22: Week in Review
Week #22: This week it was time for a new vintage of Cabernet being blended and the last of the 2023 Cabernet batches going to barrel, as such it felt like a game of tetris, juggling tanks and barrels of wine.
At Smidge, the majority of our wines are matured in fine grained French oak (Taransaud and Cabernet sauvignon work well together) and looking after these barrels is a top priority. Not only because they are expensive, but cleanliness is extremely important. To ensure the hygiene of one's barrels is maintained, a couple of main tasks are often employed. At Smidge, we use a specialised barrel washer coupled with a pressure cleaner that delivers 90+ degrees C filtered water at low volume and high pressure.
The temperature and pressure removes tartrates (unstable crystals that precipitate out of wine over time) from the inside surface of the barrel and the temperature/steam also sanitises the barrels, helping to keep unwanted bacteria and yeasts at bay. Cheers! #australianwine #operations #winemaking
Be the first to comment on this postLeaves Turning!
It’s not often during the growing season that we see such a distinct line showing 2 varieties. For a very small window, we had a beautiful reminder that the differences between varieties that go well beyond fruit colour and flavour to the different pace that vines go dormant, and the underlying pigments that exist in the vines themselves.
Fun Fact: The autumnal colours in vine leaves are present for the full growing season. It is not until the temperate & light reduces as we approach winter, and the green Chlorophyll used for photosynthesis degrades leaving original pigments (carotenoids (yellow- orange), and Anthocyanins (red – to purple).
19/05/2023 at 3:28 PM
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Top Wineries of Australia 2023
We are thrilled to get news that we made The Real Review's 2023 Top Wineries of Australia List for our third consecutive year. A huge thanks to Huon Hooke and his team, we appreciate being in the company of wineries on the list. Cheers! #australianwine #winemaking #mclarenvale
27/04/2023 at 3:25 PM
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Winery Logistics in a Heat Wave
During a week of scorching weather, like many wineries we found ourselves in the uncomfortable position of contacting clients regarding what would become late deliveries of their wine order. Heat and warmth is both a friend & foe of wine and it is certainly important for fruit maturation and even fermentation. However, for transport and storage a small daily range is what we like most, and we will always do our best to avoid excessive heat is critical.
For us, with sometimes years of work that goes into making, packing and storing a single wine it’s best we don’t trip at the finish line, and ship in a heat wave for the wine to become ‘cooked’ in the back of a truck. A result I’m sure that would risk our client’s ultimate enjoyment of the wine.
01/03/2023 at 11:30 AM
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