Nearly there ...

With the exception of Hoops’ extended maceration ferments we are close to wrapping up vintage 2011 here at RedHeads and it has certainly been an interesting one.

A cold, wet and late start exploded into sunshine and warmth and although the weather has turned back again now the meat of the work was done whilst basking in the sunshine (and moonlight), the only way to do it really.

There were a few problems along the way requiring some quick thinking and often instant reactions. These though are the things we come to expect during vintage time. You’d never hear of any producer having a faultless vintage and if you did you’d have to question how much they might have indulged themselves in last years barrels.

From fork-lifts warping and snapping under pressure and must pumps exploding to simply having to go fishing for a dip-stick in an open fermenter these kind of events can often be the highlights of a vintage and this year was no exception.

2011 was also a bit of a global vintage for us, mixed in with our resident RedHeads were the likes of Josipa from Mostar, Jane from London, Kurt from Queensland, Rob from Sydney (we’ll ignore the fact he was raised in Adelaide) and so on, everyone bringing their knowledge and doing their bit to get us through.

Now most of the wine is tucked away sleeping in oak and as soon as Hoops’ give us the word we’ll get his hanger-on through the press and into barrel and bang the bung into the 2011 vintage.

A small moment of reflection ...

A small moment of reflection now things have slowed a little as the grapes have stopped coming in. Thanks to Easter and Anzac Day all rolling into one long long weekend recent times in the winery have been a bit hectic.

Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday to be specific were manic, by far the busiest three days of vintage. Grapes coming in from all over, great parcels of finally ripe Cabernet Sauvignon from the hills (that felt like we’d been waiting forever for), some more beautiful looking hand picked Grenache and so on and so on. Three days of non-stop action, just how we like it. Early starts and going well into dark, the music was blaring and the winery was jumping.

The 2011 vintage playlist has been crafted throughout recent weeks to suit all tastes, we’re talking the likes of Rihanna to the great Pink Floyd, if you like it you add it to the list and wait for the inevitable bashing and abuse when it starts to play, no matter, as long as it’s playing loud the work won’t stop.

Now we wait for the final ferments, pressing, racking and cleaning, still plenty to be done.

Meanwhile on the next hill over …

At Longwood to see the ‘Godfather’ Phil Christiansen who is bringing in a few parcels of great looking Shiraz from down by the coast. Processing doesn’t take long at Longwood, gravity plays a major part in the procedure. Hard to know where he is going to put it though, the shed is already looking pretty full. And he hasn’t even started using his bright pink bins yet!

Further up the hill and we find plenty is going on at Pieri Wines too. Vintage is a little late this year as we all know and with his dad Mario in charge of the vineyards and growing more and more impatient Andrew is having to fight to keep his grapes on the vine.

Those that have come off so far are looking good though. A new batch is on the drying table for his signature Amarone styled Azzardo and some dry fermenters are working there way to the press that is working so hard it is starting to warp, treats the grapes like VIPs though.

He who runs in the cellar …

A day of discovery and philosophy in the winery, I’d find it hard to think of a better place for it.

First, Jess finds Fred. Missing for 12 months and presumed dead Fred was discovered hiding at the very back of the barrel shed. To be fair he was very well camouflaged due to the fact that he is himself a barrel.  A barrel of Grenache to be more precise, lost due to mislabelling in a stack of Shiraz. After intense forensic testing the handwriting on Fred is deemed to belong to Pieri so the next case of Pale Ale is on him.

We're not losing him again - Fred is clearly marked

You wouldn’t think it by looking at him but Mr. Brill likes to move around the winery at speed, from barrel storage to fermenters to the press Kurt is some what of a blur. The problem is people running in wineries normally means something bad, so everyone stops to see what’s going on. ‘Kurt save the running for when something bad happens!’ Kurt ‘Kurfucious’ Brill has realised the error of his ways and even gave us this nugget of wisdom … ‘He who runs in the cellar covers little ground.’

Blink and you'll miss him - Kurfucious is on the move

Sunshine, Shiraz and sugar levels

Hoops is all a buzz today, the sun is shining and he has just started crushing some great looking Shiraz grapes he’s sourced locally for his 2011 La Curio.

It’s one of his favourite blocks that he goes back to every year because it never lets him down. With the amount of Botrytis we’re seeing this vintage it seems his faith in this small parcel from 70 year old vines is justified. Looks great!!

And then the moment we’ve all been waiting for, after getting the fruit crushed and into an open-topped fermenter a quick check of the sugar levels shows us we’ve finally got our first 15+ degrees Baumé parcel of the vintage.

For a vintage looking to be a bit low on the sugar front this is some great news. McLaren Vale doesn’t let you down!

Adieu Lady Jane.

Recently RedHeads said a sad farewell to our very own Lady Jane. Jane Parkinson, who has been part of the team (and our voice on the blog) since the New Year took the long flight home to the UK earlier in the week to get back to life as one of the world’s top wine journalists. She will be sorely missed.

Before Jane left us though she, in true RedHeads fashion, got to work on crafting her very own Aussie drop. With a 2-ton open-topped fermenter and some top draw locally sourced fruit at her disposal Jane (with a bit of help from our resident experts) set about creating the Lady Jane Shiraz.

 Yesterday due to some re-organising in the storage shed, the Lady Jane 2011 was tucked away for a well-deserved French oak slumber. It will emerge again in approx 12 months and we hope the Lady herself will return to indulge us in the fruits of her labour, early signs point to it being a cracker!!

Cheers Jane.

Exotic creatures

Not just one but two exotic-looking creatures arrived at RedHeads last week.

One.....

.... Two

Even though the first one, Kurt Brill (whose catchphrase “sensational” is catching on like wildfire throughout the winery), has been described by a fellow vintage worker as looking like a Miami porn star, his passion for RedHeads is so strong he's even written in his will that he wants his ashes to be spread here in McLaren Vale. Sensational!

Meanwhile the Bearded Dragon caused a bit of a stir with the ladies (unlike Kurt) when it was found lurking in one of the bins of Shiraz that came off McMurtrie Road. It nearly went head-first into the crusher but was rescued just in time and now takes up residence in RedHeads' cellar door.

The Bearded Dragon and Kurt weren't the only arrivals last week, we also had a couple of in-house guests. Dan Parrott, Direct Wines’ Australia and NZ Buyer, dropped in from his base in Melbourne to taste his way through a mountain of samples, and from the UK we welcomed Direct Wines’ Managing Director Simon McMurtrie, whose thoughts on RedHeads and the region can be seen on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/RedHeadsStudio

The harvest is so damn late this year that vintage volunteers are already starting to move on to their next commitments. So before the farewells started, we took a couple of Team 2011 pics in their V11 t-shirts last Thursday - see below.

At the end of last week, we said goodbye to Croatian Josipa Andrijanic (below with Andrew Pieri, left, and Adam Hooper, right), in a Friday evening send-off that ended in Studio Member Nat McMurtrie’s winemaking shed, as he finished off his yeast inoculation while everyone drank from his cellar, ate Chinese takeaway, listened to his slightly dodgy collection CD collection and played the odd round of darts.

So what does this week have in store? Apart from yet another party at the cellar door tonight (two more vintage workers are moving on), after another bout of rain last night, fruit's scheduled to come in thick and fast this week, so by Friday we reckon RedHeads is going to be cooking on gas.