Inside the Winery

“Grapes come on trucks.” That’s an old idiom in the wine industry, implying that winemakers only meet the fruit when it lands at the winery. But for us that’s not the case, as I’ve spent the better part of the last 6 months driving in circles, checking on our various vineyards.

This morning, alongside some others, it’s a truckload of pristine hand picked Chardonnay from the Adelaide Hills, destined for our Corrugated Castle. Tom’s on the forklift to unload the delivery while the rest of us get everything ready.

Then it’s weighed on the big scales before going straight into the press.

Chardonnay gets pressed pretty much straight away—we want to keep it fresh and avoid the bitter phenolic compounds that come from time on skins. While the press is being filled, Nick’s washing barrels and getting them ready. As it’s beautiful and pristine handpicked fruit, we direct press this Chardonnay straight into barrel, gaining complexity throughout the press cycle.

We keep our presses pretty gentle—we get less yield, but the quality is much better. It takes about four hours, which sounds like plenty of time, but there’s always something else that needs doing during that time—there’s no standing around!

Vintage is in full swing, and this job can take hours—we’ve got tanks everywhere and everything needs constant attention. Gabby’s on pump-overs this morning, while Nick’s plunging the pots. We use either pump-overs or plungers to mix the ferments on skins. We do this to even out temperatures and to extract colour, flavour and tannin from the skins. 

Did you know that nearly all grapes have white juice? The colour for the red wines is all locked up in the skins, and it’s this process that leeches the colour into the wine. You should see the colour of this McLaren Vale Shiraz—such a deep purple it’s almost black, it stains everything it touches, including my hands.

We’re super gentle with our fermentation management, keeping things cool and calm, and aiming to extract tannins through extended maceration rather than beating the wines too aggressively.

We work long, hard days, so it’s important to stop and gather the gang together for lunch, open a bottle or two, to taste and remind ourselves why we love this work. It’s good to have a reminder when you’ve got wet feet in wet boots from washing down a press, or you’re elbows deep in muck from a blocked drain.
We’re lucky that my mum, Lindy, comes and cooks us lunch on Fridays. She’s a trained chef, so you know I’m not just biased when I say she cooks the most delicious meals, sometimes with a little help from my dad too. We’ll throw in some nice wines too to set the mood, making it a great way to book-end a busy week.