The Wine Blokes

A Wine Bloke and the guys at Smithbrook take a look at some interesting Sauvignon Blanc from the Smithbrook Vineyard, just prior to harvesting.

A look inside one of the most important pieces of equipment during vintage. The Grape Press.

There are many machines and equipment that is used in the winery and most are full of gleaming stainless steel. One of the machines that captures peoples attention (people always stop and stare), is the Rotary Drum Vacuum Filter, or RDV. Please excuse the winemaker enthusiasm, as it seems only we get excited about […]

 
As all the whites have now come into the winery, we spent most of today tasting and grading all the Sauvignon Blanc juices.  All have been racked and and the bottoms filtered and kept at about 2 degrees C prior to seeding with yeast for fermentation.
The grading of the juices is one of the critical steps […]

Another look at some of the processes that take place during vintage in a winery in Australia.

By Jon F.
During my first nights sleep in the Smithbrook house 4 weeks ago, I was awoken and a little alarmed by a glowing, pulsating red light just outside the bedroom window.  On further investigation, I was relieved to find that it was the hatchery for the 100’s of guniea fowl chicks that roam the vineyard […]

By Jon F.
One of the most important operations completed during vintage is of course, picking. For hundreds if not thousands of years, grape growers have picked the grapes by hand, carefully selecting the best bunches. 21st Centruy technology has revolutionised this operation with the introduction of mechanical grape harvesters. Over the years […]

Cleaning, Cleaning, Cleaning
Working in the wine industry can many times be perceived as glamorous and high-brow, with romantic notions of strolling through the vineyard on a sunny day talking wine, or tasting barrel samples, long lunches and winemaker dinners.  These things do happen, but a large part of the time (especially at vintage), is spent […]

Probably the single most important decision of vintage, which can make or break the quality and style of a wine, excluding seasonal variables, is the decision of when to pick. 
We have walked and tasted our way through every remaining white block over the last few days and it is quite amazing the change in flavours […]

The last few nigths have been quite busy for both harvesting and winery crew.  With rain forecast for the next few days, and many Sauvignon Blanc blocks looking ready to pick both on analysis and flavour, we’ve basically been picking as much as we can.
Sampling:  Approximately 4 weeks prior to picking, all blocks are sampled […]