Vino d'Auge

Tscharke - Mediterranean varietals

2009-03-23T05:24:00.000-07:00

A Monday visit to Damien Tscharke's joint with the collaboration of Red + White. Only ever-so-slightly against the grain, Damien is producing some paradoxically über-fruity-yet-complex expressions of Euro varietals in the Barossa Valley (of South Australia). Remember, this is the home of 'Vino d'Auge Montepulciano' - grown by Damien, vinified by James Erskine, and to be enjoyed by all this coming May!
Damien goes the 'hands-off' technique, using a bit of post-ferment skin soaking to eek-out extra smooth tannins from front to back.
Straight from the bottle the wines sing fruit sweetness, but with time in the glass complex undercurrents of tobacco, eucalypt and camp fire make themselves known.

The family working the pump-overs

Whole bunch press recycling nitrogen for a completely anaerobic environment

Well worth the abduction...It breaths nitrogen

A barrel tasting of '08 Graciano, Tempranillo, Monte', and Zind.

and smashing down some glasses over a lunch of Smoked Salmon Rotolo, Beef wrapped in Bacon with a goat's curd accompaniment, and lastly: chocolate marquise with VP. Strewth! silence descended the winery....

East

West

The view toward the Eden Valley

Seppeltsfield Road

Rob Ellis can click his fingers and make great wine for Hewitson.
Not bad for a boy used-to picnic-ing at Hanging Rock.

Have you seen Steven King's first movie: 'Duel'? Rob keeps the keys to this Bad Boy.

Beautiful winery. So fresh and so clean.

Vendemmia all' improvviso!

2009-03-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

In a momentary decision (on Sunday 15th March) that took all by suprise, the prosecco had to be picked by yesterday (Monday 16th) at the latest. Thanks to Silvio for his flexibility, and the picking crew (fielded mostly by the home team, thank you!) we managed to have the grapes off the vines by lunch time, and pressing finished by 9pm. The juice is clarifying in the cold night air at Anton's place in the Basket Ranges before being racked into tanks to begin fermentation. Once the base wine is fermented to dry, it'll be racked into pressure-tight kegs and dosed with a measured quantity of sugar solution to kick-off the secondary fermentation and give the wine its mousse.

Sunday: Prosecco looking spot-on. The rapid ripening in the two weeks since the last visit is incredible. Harvest cannot be held off any longer in order to hold any measure of delicacy in the finished wine.

Anton van Klopper and Silvio dal Cin

Sunday: Dry

Monday: Drizzle, all bloody day!
but harvest looked very healthy indeed. Prosecco is a vigorous yielder: big bunches, and plenty to each vine.

Anton and Jules

some buckets of harvested prosecco grapes showing the variation in ripeness between the east-facing and west-facing trellises. West for ripe fruit characters (apricots), and east for acidity and freshness (green tea).

Carozelli cucumbers! A secret of Silvio's. 'Eat them like an apple' - delicious.

Biodynamics by Dr Suess

2009-03-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

We all like the idea of biodynamics, but no-one makes me want it more than Dr Seuss!
Thanks Dave (Teusner) for passing this on...

Maverick Wines - from Barossa to Eden

2009-03-07T22:35:00.000-08:00

Maverick Wines and Decant were generous enough to treat a small group of Adelaide wine professionals and one complete unprofessional (moi) to a curated tour of their vineyards and wine facilities in Greenock, Vinevale, and Eden Valley.
Maverick has a spectacular collection of very old-vine vineyards through these appellations and is farmed biodynamically to ensure optimum fruit character.
Ron and Chris were on-hand to guide us through the philosophy and objectives of this property. A 'bench-marking' tasting exercise was also held to establish industry feedback (on one hand) and to better illustrate Chris's wine-making style on the other.

This is Ron. He owns the joint. Ron is very passionate about old vines. Watch Ron's hands.

How I love juicy, cinnamon-nutmeg-gy, floral, spicy Greenock shiraz

This is an old 'centurion' bush-vine grenache.

Ron guides us through the grapes-to-barrel process at Maverick. All small-lot fermentations with minimum interference i.e innoculations, etc. It's very apparent that Maverick is a boutique enterprise.

Check out this copper vortexing machine from 'Castello di Rampola'. It's used for energising the water for the bidynamic preperations used on the vineyards. Controversy! a machine!

Pewsey Vale in the Eden Valley. Shiraz.

Very shallow soils with a granite substrate. These vineyards are nearly ready for DEMETA accreditation.

A wonderful contouring vineyard of chardonnay at the 'Trial Hill' estate.

The Monkey Nut tree on the highest point of the highest hill in Eden. Chardonnay in the foreground.

Old Vine Riesling. An extraordinary taste contrast to younger vines. Younger vines are more sour and one dimensional, whilst the old vine fruit is muscat-y sweet with softer, talc tannins and less savage acidity.

Contouring riesling vineyard at 'Trial Hill'

The Barossa Flat in the background.

Chris explains the approach to winemaking. I think 'minimal-intervention' and 'elegant' would be fair calls.

Crispian has a secret. It requires fierce concentration.

Thank you 'Maverick' and Decant Fine Wines! Some of the most memorable vineyards I've seen. This is truly great 'terroir' and has changed how I look at Eden. Can't wait to get back up there.

Vino d'Auge Veraison

2009-03-07T21:47:00.000-08:00

I spent a Sunday with Anton Van Klopper looking at the Dean's sangiovese and the Dal Cin's prosecco. After seeing devastated vineyards in other regions, it was a relief to see such healthy looking vines with excellent fruit set. There is another week or so to go for the prosecco and probably around 3 weeks to go for the sangiovese.

This photo establishes the 'opening shot' for the Dean's sangiovese vineyard - underneath Mt Lofty House and on an easterly aspect protected from the harsh afternoon sun.

Sangiovese with quite some ripening to go

Spider webs keeping the grape-loving birds off the sangiovese

This is Anton using his 'taste-spectrometer 2000' apparatus to measure for ripeness

I'll ask Judy and Duncan next time I see them...

oii!

Lucy Van Klopper - Artist in residence and zucchini farmer

Dry grown pinot noir from the 'Lucy-Margaux' vineyard at Anton's farm.
Read what Max Allen has to say about Anton's 'natural wines'.

The natural energies of Lucy-Margaux pinot crystallised.
The Van Klopper's use this natural image for their Pinot Noir labels.

Nigel's 'Little Creek' vineyard that forms the Domaine Lucci 'Little Creek' Pinot Noir.
Such a beautiful setting amongst the eucalypts at Norton Summit.

Ever seen prosecco before? This essentially organic vineyard in Norton Summit has the oldest prosecco in Australia and is owned and cared-for by the charming Dal Cin family of Basket Range.

I'm really looking forward to hauling in some grapes over the next month and getting stuck into some quasi-experimental winemaking.

Yangarra and Samuel's Gorge, McLaren Vale

2009-03-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

This is the ironstone that form ridges throughout the 'Blewitt Springs' area of McLaren Vale. The following photo shows the fineness of the decomposition of the ironstone to form a light dust/sand. It's essentially a hydroponic enterprise. Oh.. did I mention biodynamic? And did I mention 'Yangarra'? Probably because I want to keep it a secret: this is certainly some of the most amazing VV material in the 'Vale, with an anti-chemical philosophy. My thoughts exactly! Go here for the marketing: http://www.yangarra.com/about/index.html but go to the photos for the soul, baby
Perfectly ripening Rousanne. Every cloud has a silver lining..
Some very promising looking Mourvedre with delicious flavour development, even 2-3 weeks prior to harvest. Umm, sorry, just send me an invoice for the 2 bottles worth of mourvedre I ate.
This is one of the special blocks of shiraz on the property. There's a distinct aniseed character here that I had always attributed to oak - a power component of the new 'Ironstone' shiraz to be released by Yangarra. http://www.yangarra.com/about/index.html
Meet your makers: (That's Tom, Peter, and Shelley from left to right)

And if Yangarra are farmers par-excellence, then 'Samuel's Gorge' are 'Vignerons Extraordinaire'. Small vat fermentations on slate, outside. Justin's hair has only half the character of his wines:

And you know how larconic Australian's are: 'Slim' is someone who is fat, 'Bluey' is a ginger, well Samuel's 'Gorge' is a flipping canyon:
And as the sweetest parting of all. Ladies and Gentleman may I present: McLaren Vale...

2009-03-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Whoa, some time has spun by.
I'm David; James's friend, conspirator in wine, and contemporary at Auge Ristorante. I'll take you through this new year of Vino d'Auge, and maybe a little look into South Australia's finest terriors and the people who make wines of them.
Let's start with the photo's and with a little time I'll fatten them up with some texty goodness. Buon Appetito...

Rose and Pinot Grigio Launch 8th September 2008

2008-09-16T02:55:00.001-07:00

Below are a number of photos taken by Jen on the eve of our vino by Auge wine launch. The launch was held at Auge. Friends of the restaurant, local restauranters and lovers of alternate varietals, media and of course all involved in the project were invited.

Local epicure and writer Nigel Hopkins opened the evening (above). The evening was set out as an opportunity for the wineries involved to discuss their involvment and own wine niches.

Anton highlighted what is to be a biodynamic farmer and the importance of seeing life on both the small and large scale. The photo below shows Anton, his daughter Lucy, Duncan and Jude Dean (whose sangiovese vineyard was harvested for our rose) and Mary Lou Simpson (friend of Auge).

Marty Edwards represented the Lane Vineyards, discussing how the Lane had developed from the first major grower of Adelaide Hills sauvignon blanc to their exciting place today as one of the leading, Adelaide Hills wineries. The photo below shows some of the Lane crew.

Damien discussed the importance of accepting alternate varietlas into the mainstream of the Australian wine world and how this project helped bring alternate varieties further away from their "weird" pigeon-hole. Damien also made mention of how well the montepulciano vines had weathered the über hot year, compared to other more commonly planted varieties; hinting at the sustainable farming potential of alternate varietals. The photo below shows Antony Simpson (friend of Auge), Eva (Damien's fiance) and Damien Tscharke.

In line with the regional producers theme of the evening, I also invited the son of one of Adelaide's finest deer farmers, Chris from Hahndorf Vension to talk a little about the farming of deer and the challenge of increasing the acceptance of venison in the market place. Chris couldn't help but crack a few jokes, bringing the room down with laughter:)

The final photos from the evening show some of the back of house crew who made the vino by auge launch possible plus some of the friends of Auge who helped along the way. Below are Jackie and Allan (Auge).

Dave Kooks it up after serving vino at the launch and Damien and Tom keep the canapes rolling out of the kitchen. Here it's squid ink ravioli filled with scallop mouse, fennel and a wee butter sauce to compliment the pinot grigio.

Below are Jez and Tom both assisted with green harvesting the pinot grigio as well as harvesting and sorting the sangiovese.

Labelling the Rose

2008-09-16T02:30:00.000-07:00

The vino by Auge team is most grateful to Janet and Erin klein from Ngeringa wines for the loan of the bottle-labeller. Janet and Erin make some seriously interesting wines from vines planted on their farms in Mt Barker and Nairne; for more info check out http://www.ngeringa.com/. We used their labeller for both the rose and the pinot grigio. The montepulciano will still in barrel for a few more months.

The photos below show a bit of the action from the rose labelling day. The photos show Dave (auge), Archie (james's maternal grandfather), Anton (Lucy Margaux) and James (auge). Archie is the second grandfather involved, hands on in this project. Search pop in the vino by auge homepage search bar to see pictures of Damien's grandfather lending a hand too.

The photo below is a reminder that it always takes good friends and food to make good wine :)
Archie thought this pasta was the best pasta he'd ever tasted, naturally in true Anton fashion, everything eaten came from his farm with the exception of the wheat for the pasta and the Reggiano that Dave gifted Anton at his recent birthday.

Topping the Montepulciano 13/08/08

2008-08-13T19:22:00.000-07:00

The monty has been left on its gross-lees (left over yeast from the ferment) now for two months. It has been important to check the wine for reductivity (search this blog using the search function for more info on reductivity) regularaly. When you put your nose in the barrel it smells just fantastic. The wood is four years old, so imparts little flavour, the wine smells rich, pruney, coffee like and spicy, no sign of jammyness. Some people like to top their wines weekly but we have only topped our monty twice over two months. Each topping (using Damien's monty..thanks Damien:) )we have added circa 2.5 Litres of wine.

You need to top barrels because the wine evaporates. The rate of evaporation is a function of wood porosity, temperature and humidity. The more humid the room, the less the evaporation. Damien's barrle storage is a stable 22 degrees C and humidity around 40%, so evap is slow.

Barrel maturation is adding richness to the wine and is very slowly oxidising the wine...but good oxidation. Low levels of exposure of red wine to oxygen allows tannins to soften, colour to be stabilised and therefore the future potenital of the wine to oxidise in bottle is reduced, prolonging the cellaring potentia of the wine.

Malolactic fermentation (use blog search tool for more info) is finished but a slightly milky aroma persists in the wine, so we have decided to rack the wine from its sediment (lees etc) in two weeks time. At this stage the wine will have minor levels of sulfur added, to protect the wine from microbial (yeast or bacterial) spoilage and oxidation and will be returned to a clean barrel.

Bottling the Pinot Grigio 09/08/08

2008-08-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

There are many different techniques available to bottle wine. We chose to bottle by hand and to bottle under stelvin cap. The bottling process itself was quite simple. The photo above shows the bottling team. Jen (auge) with the Nitrogen-gun, Andrew (auge), Allan (auge), Charlotte( the Lane) , Ben (the lane) and Dave (auge).

Clean bottles were gassed with nitrogen to displace any oxygen. Nitrogen is heavier than oxygen, so sits in the bottle. Nitrogen is inert, therefore should not have any reductive or oxidative effects on the wine. Wine is then hand-filled, using the gun that can be seen in the photo above. Next step, the levels are adjusted with a micro-pipette, bottles are wiped dry and a stelvin is added using the stelvinator. It is important that the bottle-heads are dried properly, prior to applying the stelvin cap, so that no excess wine can sit their and oxidise, leaving an unpleasant aroma when the stelvin is removed later in the restaurant. Which brings us to the photo below showing our first bottle of pinot grigio; charlotte (the lane), ben (the lane), james (auge)and allan (auge).

Prior to bottling, the pinot grigio had been racked from barrel (1month in new french oak) and stored in stainless steel. The wine was fined, using a clay called bentonite and cold stabilised. Bentonite like all clays is negatively charged. Why add this to a wine? The negatively charged clay attracts any free proteins (positively charged) that exist in the wine, causing these to precipitate to the bottom of the tank. This is done to avoid a haze forming in the wine, should the wine be exposed somewhere in its life to higher temperatures. Proteins unfold at higher temperatures which can cause a haze. I did not use this process in the rose but was happy to work together with the Lane and their philosophies on bottling. We trialed a few other fining agents including the milk protein cassein, the fish-gut derivative protein called ising glass and a number of synthetic, negatively charged polymers. Each of these acts on the wine in different ways, removing phenolics (tannins), proteins. As always I preferred to leave the wine as it was, the fining agents were too strongly removing the real character of this wine, especially the crunchy phenolics on the finish which I have been chasing.

The other stabilisation, cold stabilisation, is where a wine is chilled down to four degrees C. At this temperature any excess potassium crystals (usually in the form of tartrates) precipitate. This process can be catalysed by adding cream of tartar to the wine which acts as a seed for the other tartrates to bind to. Tartrates are only removed for cosmetic purposes, to avoid the formation of "wine-diamonds" in the bottom of the bottle. We did not add any cream of tartar and the process was done by leaving the stainless steel barrel outside, in the freezing Adelaide Hills air for a few nights.

The final picture above shows the good chow that came our way, half way through bottling. The Lane not only produces awesome wines but also has a great dining establishment where chef Glenn Carr masters the kitchen, see website for details.

Finalising the label design 11/08/08

2008-08-13T18:29:00.001-07:00

The above photo shows Kim Seppelt Deakin from Sector7g and James adding the finishing touches to the label design. Next step for the labels is doing the trial prints with our selected printer.

First Major Label design Meeting

2008-07-27T20:52:00.001-07:00

Getting the viticulture and wines right is one thing; label design is another.

From the beginning of this project, I knew exactly where I wanted to go with the wine-styles but conveying the right image for our wines via label design has been a slow evolution. Ideas came and went, questions of brand recognition and suitability arose.

Terry, the owner of Auge, has a professional relationship with a local, graphic designer Nick Eldridge, whose company Sector7g has assisted Auge with various promotional activities over the past few years. Searching the web I found the following on Nick;

"After completing a Bachelor of Visual Communication at the University of South Australia in 1989, Eldridge began his career in Melbourne. Returning to Adelaide, he spent six years as a mainstream creative director, before establishing his own studio......Eldridge founded his Sector7g design studio in 1999, with a small suite of local clients. Today, his work can be found on the slopes of Japanese ski resorts, construction sites and locally in regional tourist areas" (Hackett, P.,2007, Designs of the World, http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21555376-5006348,00.html)

My first meeting with Nick went well and it took only one other meeting for us to reach a consensus on where the label design should head. Although we are not quite there yet, below is an idea of where we are heading. Much respect to Nick for listening carefully and incorperating my euphemisms into his design.

Racking the Pinot Grigio 16/06/2008

2008-06-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

This image shows the pinto grigio vineyard now all leaves have fallen. The vineyard is not yet dormant, .i.e. there is still sap flowing in the vine-canes, therefore we are not ready to prune.

The pinot grigio has been in barrel now for one month. It is interesting to see the wood stripped some of the pink-colour from the wine. The other major changes that ocured in barrel were that the wine has taken on some subtle vanillin characters as well as a little more mouth texture/grippyness (good for carrying food flavours). BUT I do not want to impart too much wood flavour as I hope to preserve the fruit integrity of the wine. So it is time to rack the grigio from the 225L barrique to a 300L stainless steel mueller barrel. Remembering that racking is moving wine from one vessel to another, in this case to remove the wine from wood and to remove it from its dead yeast cells (lees).

Racking to a 300L barrel meant that we had to find another 75L of a similar wine to top with, to avoid oxidation. Why rack then and not just go straight to bottle? Well, I want the wine to tighten up even further, this is possible when in contact with stainless steel, so it's off to barrel + one of the other early harvested blocks of lane pinot gris has awesome grassy fruit aromas, which after a blending trial looked great in our wine, so I went for it.

Once we had found the right wine, blending was easy. We simply took 75L of the other pinot gris from tank (below) and added this to the steel barrel of 225L of pinot grigio. These will stay in barrel now for 2 months. During this time the barrel will be placed outside, in the cold of the hills winter nights, to allow any excess potassium in the wine to settle out as a potassium titrate crystal (wine diamonds). This is purely for aesthetics, to avoid precipitants from forming in the bottle of the bottle when chilled in a fridge below 4 degrees C.

Note how frothy the blending wine looks in the bucket. This is because the wine is being kept and continually being topped with dissolved CO2 to retain freshness. This blows off once the wine is exposed to air conditions.

Is the Month through Malo? 20/6/08

2008-06-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

The photos above show Damien, Andrew(Auge's new barman), Eva(Damien's Fiance) and James(Sommelier) checking the development of the Montepulciano in barrel. This was the first time I had looked at the Monty in a month. Damien and I speak weekly about the status of our wine and Damien ensured me that Malo lactic Fermentation (MLF) was still underway. I felt comfortable leaving the monty for such a long time as the risk of wines developing wine faults like reductivity and volatility are very low while MLF is underway.

As a reminder MLF is where lactic acid bacteria "'ferment" malic (apple) acid to lactic (milk) acid producing CO2 in the process. Here CO2 acts as an anti-oxidant preventing the oxidation of fruit and alcohol to acetic acid (vinegar). Since the wine is bubbling while fermenting, there is little risk of wines becoming reductive (stinky), where Hydrogen binds to Sulfir forming H2S (hydrogen sulfide).

MLF "bugs" can be added to a wine to stimulate MLF and ensure the process takes place but providing sulfur levels are not too high (less than 12ppm free) MLF should and did take place naturally.

So, down to the nit and the grit; how's she tasting? Well, she's still finishing up MLF therefore some of the fruit is till masked by a milkyness that will disappear. The wine is very tightly structured and has a great prune / plum flavour. The tannins I was hunting for (via post ferment maceration for 6 weeks) are definately evident and swoosh forward from the back of the palate and up the sides of your cheeks. There is a really cheeky squeakyness in the acid of the wine and the length is great. There is a little bitterness. There are two suggestions where this may have arisen from. 1. The post ferment maceration was very gentle (i.e. no plunging) but it is possible that this long period of alcohol contact with the seeds, extracted some of the higher/bitter tannins. 2. We pressed too hard; this is unlikley.

I discussed the potential of battonage (stirring the dead yeast cells=lees) with Damien as a way of add to the mouthfeel of the wine BUT the tighness is so unique at the moment so, there I feel it is better to sit and wait. I predict that this wine will stay in barrel at least until Feb 2009, allowing the wine to integrate, taking on some sweetness from the wood and concentrate as the wine slowly evaporates in barrel.

Next steps? In two weeks time we will rack the wine from the barrel it is in, to another barrel, taking the wine from the gross-lees. This is important because when MLF is complete there will be no more natural bubbling/movement of the wine and there will be no CO2 present therefore the lees in the wine will begin to suck up any O2 that is present, creating a reductive environment. We want to keep some lees, as these certainly add texture the mouthfeel of the wine as it matures but we definately want to avoid reduction!

Pinot Grigio: Acid Add

2008-05-01T21:08:00.000-07:00

This image shows Charlotte Hardy from the Lane setting up an acid trial. Charlotte is pipetting different concentrations of tartaric acid into samples of the pinot grigio.

My goal with the grigio was to maximise aromatics but retain a tight, almost squeaky structure with acid and tannin balance. I am stoked with the natural tannins (phenolics) that have come out in the wine. I love a little phenolic grip in whites; i find phenolics help carry food and wine flavours on the palate.

In the previous acid trial update for the blog I discussed the process we undertook to narrow the ballpark figure of acid addition for the pinot grigio down to within 250mg/L. Now that the pinot grigio is dry (all sugar converted to alcohol) our initial estimations really had to be reworked. The process showed us lots of surprises but eventually we came to a team decision that should stand us and the pinot grigio in excellent steed.

Against all my personal convictions I went ahead and decided to reduce the alcohol from 14.3 to 13.77% before going to barrel. This was done by adding 11.25L of water to 225 L of wine together with 0.8g/L tartaric acid. Once in Barrel, the wine was sulfured to 15parts per million free and bunged-up. For more info on sulfur additions search sulfur in the "search this blog" section on the home page.

I say acid and water additions are against my own conviction as I have always considered my self a purist when it comes to food and wine e.g. when I eat cheese I am not interested in any condiments or bread, just the pure flavour and texture of the natural product. It has always been the same with wines. I admire producers like the Lane, Tscharke and Lucy Margaux who are minimal interventionists in both the vineyard and cellar. However, this wine is being tailored specifically with Auge food styles in mind. Additions were a pragmatic decision to ensure the wine suits the style of our food and so that our wine retains its own identity different to that of the Lane. Up and till now both our and the Lane's 2008 grigio have been managed together.

Although still a small, family owned winery, the Lane is larger than my other two partners Tscahrke and Domaine Lucy Margaux. Ideally I would have liked to have taken our portion of the grigio off earlier however, due to rapid grape ripening rates caused by a hot year, it was not possible for me to harvest our portion of the pinot grigio vineyard separately, as this would have thrown a spanner in a highly logistic and systematic grape harvesting and wine making schedule. I had 100% faith in the Lane teams' call to leave the grigio hanging. The evidence in their experience with the variety is obvious in their wines.

After the acid additions I am very excited in how the grigio is looking and can't wait to see how she develops in her brief barrel adventure, where she'll take on a little more tannin grip.

Montepulciano: Pressing 27/04/08

2008-05-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

This photo shows Damien, his basket press, Joe(bar) and Jen (2nd sommelier).

The monty has been on skins for 4 weeks now. By leaving the wine on skins for so long our goal was to try and extract maximum potential tannins from the skins and seeds. Tannin structure is very important to me as a sommelier, as I believe tannins not only provide structure to wines but also carry and help integrate wine and food flavours when eating.

Tannin build up and mouth-feel of the wine was closely observed throughout the post-fermentation maceration process as excess extraction of harsh tannins (especially at high alcohol levels) can lead to hard wines. Therefore once the ferment had finished, the wine was left on skins and the skins were hand plunged once per week.

Here you can see Joe and I hand filling the basket press with the monty wine and skins prior to pressing. This was the first time I had experience using a basket press and the first time I had the opportunity of making the call when to stop pressing. When you press a red wine, the initial wine that comes out of the skins at low pressing pressure contains less tannins than the later wine that is being forced out of the skin-marc. It was very challenging to make the call when to make the press-cut, i.e. when to stop pressing the marc because the monty was already undergoing malolactic fermentation (malo) which gives the wine a milky flavour and can not be too sure how the structure of the wine will change as malic acid is converted to lactic. Type in malo in "search this blog" at the top of the home page to find more info malo.

After filling our selected four year old, francois frere barrel (225L) we let the wine settle and had a good old german barbie with knack-wurst, sauerkraut and kartofelsalat. The above photo shows Damien syphoning James off a sample of the monty. Boy, where we all stoked with how things were looking. The plan from now; let the wine stay on gross lees (dead yeast cells etc) in the barrle until the naturally occuring malo has finished, then we'll rack the wine off the gross lees, sulfur her up and let evaporation and tannin polymerisation do the rest.

Pinot Grigio: Choosing the right barrel 16/04/08

2008-04-16T23:28:00.002-07:00

In order to allow the pinot grigio to take on some more tannin grip and tighten up a little we plan to have her in new french wood for a brief stay e.g. 3 months. During this three months we aim to stir the lees as LEAST as possible and to avoid malo-lactic fermentation by adding sulfur.

Malo-lactic fermentation (MLF) is the conversion of apple acid to milk acid, in a wine. This occurs in nearly every red wine and in fatter white wines. Because we want to hold our acid crispness and palate tightness we do not want the wine to go through MLF.

This photo shows Jen and I sniffing through 10 or so barrels until we found what we were looking for. It is amazing the way different barrels can smell so different. We ended up selecting barrel 0785, from the barrel-maker Taransaud. The oak came from Troncais forrest region and is a new medium toasted barrel.

Pinot Grigio

2008-04-16T23:28:00.001-07:00

Pinot Grigio Acid Trials 16/04/2008

2008-04-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

The pinot grigio at the lane started naturally fermenting just over a week ago. It was still in tank, so it was decided to leave the entire crush in tank for ferment. Today the Beaume has gone from 14.2 to 0.2 = roughly 4g/L sugar. Total Acid = 7.01 and pH = 3.59.

Pinot Grigio naturally has high tannins / phenolics in its skins. The wine is tasting great with lots of punchy fruit aromas and some estery banana character however it is also still on gross lees (full yeast) so there is plenty more fruit that is yet to shine through.

Talking with the Lane's wine maker (charlotte) it was decided that to get the pinot grigio closer to where I want it to be structurally for Auge's food, an acid add is required. The photo above shows Charlotte, Jen and I bench tasting 5 replications of the same wine but with different amounts of tartaric acid added to each. This was only a pre-liminary trial however, some good results shone through. Between each trial we increased the acid added by 250mg/L, therefore trial 1 contained no added acid, 2 250mg/L, trial 3 500mg/L etc. through to trial 5 which contained 1g/l acid. A marked difference in palate structure began at 500mg/L. The best result was seen to be at 750mg/L. However, most interestingly, when 1g/L was added the acid appeared to fall away back to where it was in trial 1. I postulate that this is due to a decrease in pH that was buffered and therefore not recogniseable in the other trials.

Our conclusion was that once the wine is fermented to dry = all sugar is converted to alcohol we will run an acid trial again, this time with a tighter margin above and below 750mg/L. Once we are satisfied that we have made the best decision for the wine, we will acidify the partially fined wine before it gos to barrel.

Bleeding the crushed Sangiovese 07/04/2008

2008-04-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

We are making a rose with the sangiovese so it is important that we get some colour from the grape skins and I also want to get some light, grippy tannin extract too (to the horror of most aussie wine makers). After leaving the crushed juice on skins for 18 hours, 300 L of juice was syphoned from the must to a stainless steal barrel where the juice remained until it was actively fermenting. No yeast or acid was acid. Once the wine was fermenting, it was syphoned to an older barrel where it will remain over winter.

Keeping the team fed 06/04/2008

2008-04-16T22:53:00.001-07:00

Anton has a great, home made, pizza oven. Sorting and crushing the grapes took about 4 hours to do 1000kg of grapes. A lot of thin and crunchy pizzas were required. To top things off Anton made a pear tart from his farm's pears.

The top photo shows the pear tart, the blue tub into which are sangiovese was crushed into and a gleefull Tom the Pom (farm hand and apprentice at Lucy Margaux). :]
The second pic shows Anton (owner Lucy Margaux) and Terry (Auge owner), prepping for the next pizza.

Sorting the Sangiovese 06/03/2008

2008-04-16T22:38:00.000-07:00

When wineries talk about bunch / berry sorting to remove unwanted grapes prior to crushing the sorting is often rather rough. THIS IS AS GOOD AS IT GETS.....Here you can see the team removing shrivelled, sun burned and damaged grapes to ensure that only the best makes it through to the finished product.

Photo shows: Sally (owner Lucy Margaux), Tom (friend), Fi (friend), Anne (Auge), Jen (sommelier), Cla (Anne's partner), Terry (Auge owner) and a whole heap of good looking sangiovese.
Naturally to aid the good labourers, good food and coffee is required. Here you can see some of Maria (Auge owner) and her son Georgos' Baklava and Anton's favourite new family member, Elektra the coffee machine.

Harvesting the Sangiovese 6/03/2008

2008-04-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

There they are, the ripe and ready sangiovese. Look at the interesting oval berry form. The grape bunch is also exhibiting "hen and egg setting". This is where some berries stay small while others increase in size. Some people complain but we are excited about this as it is likely that many of the smaller berries will have more acid, giving vital structure to our future rose.

This frog hopped onto Auge team member Anne's hand while she was harvesting a bunch of sangiovese. Frogs, like all fauna, are a good sign in a vineyard. You have to think why they are there? Probably cause there's lots of other critters to eat. All those critters could only survive if they are not sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. Healthy biodiversity.

The sangiovese rose picking team:
front row: Jude(vineyard owner), Lucy(anton and sally's daughter), james (sommelier),
first row standing: Fi(friend), Anton(owner Lucy Margaux), Anne (auge team), Cla (Anne's husband from Emiglio Romagna), Jen (sommelier), Tom (friend).
back three standing: Tom the Pom (Lucy Margaux), Duncan Dean (vineyard owner), Duncan's brother. photo taken by Nick Dean.

Pinot Grigio Harvest 22/03/08

2008-04-12T22:12:00.000-07:00

Above shows james (sommelier), terry (owner), jen (sommelier) and john edwards (lane vineyards owner) in front of a bin of hand harvested pinot grigio.

Jen plans her next move.

Harvest took place on of 22nd March. Beaume 14.2, pH 3.33, TA 7.3. Please refer to Montepulciano harvest update below for more information on Beaume, pH and TA. We were all surprised how well the pinot grigio held her acid and how long the grapes took to reach physiological ripeness. Physiological ripeness refers to the ripeness of the seeds in the grapes and the pulp around the seeds. Sugar ripeness only refers to the amount of sugar (potential alcohol).

dry ice layer 20/03/2008

2008-03-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

Dry ice is thrown into the tank once all the must has been flushed through the hose from the crusher to the tank. Dry ice is carbon dioxide (CO2) and comes in pressurised tanks just like helium or oxygen would. In this image you can see that the dry ice is "melting", releasing CO2 and the CO2 gas is spreading over the cap. CO2 is heavier than oxygen and therefore sits on top of the must, acting as a protective layer against oxygen oxidation.

The must was then left over night, so that we could relax for a delicious dinner. The following day we took a 100ml sample to Damien's lab and measured that the must had a beaume of 14.02, pH 3.88 and total acidity 6.2.

1 degree Beaume (a measure of the specific gravity of sugar in the must) ferments to roughly one degree of alcohol.

pH is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution and is a logarythmic scale. The greater the concentration of hydrogen ions the lower the pH. Wine makers the world over understand that a pH higher than 3.65, will leave a wine prone to bacterial and non-sugar fermenting yeast spoilage (e.g. brett). The lower the pH the higher the hue of purple in a wine and the tighter the mouthfeel. A low pH also means when sulfur is added to a finished wine, less of that sulfur can be bound to molecules in the wine, meaning that a wine will have a higher "free-sulfur" content prior to bottling. Sulfur is added to almost all finished wines prior to bottling to reduce potential oxidation and to stabilise the wine from microbes. Free-sulfur molecules are not irreversibly bound to solids in the wine. More free-sulfur means greater protection from oxidation and therefore greater longevity of freshness in your wine.

Total acidity is a measurement of the total acid concentration (g/L) in a must or wine. Acid gives a wine structure and backbone.

After looking at the lab results it was decided that a slight acid adjustment would be made to the monty must, remembering that once the ferment is finished the red wine will eventually go through malolactic acid fermentation (naturally). Here malic (apple acid) is naturally fermented to lactic (milk acid) by lactobacillus bacteria. When this occurs the total acidity of the wine drops. Malo-lactic fermentation will be discussed in greater detail when our wines head this way.

crushing the monty 20/03/2008

2008-03-24T15:57:00.001-07:00

Here you can see james, slowly feeding the monty grapes into the crusher-destem machine. Here grapes are removed from their stems and lightly crushed. A pump at the bottom of the machine pumps the must into a empty tank. Damien feeds the juice soaked stems that are left over to his families cattle, "they love it".

the monty harvesting team 20/3/08

2008-03-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

It took us just over three hours to harvest a full row of montepulciano by hand. In spite of the two week heat-wave that had just ended, the grapes were fantastic. Some minor hand sorting was undertaken in the vineyard to remove sunburned or shriveled berries. No sulfur was used.
photo shows; Jen (second sommelier), James, Denise (james' fiance) and Joe (barman)

Pop

2008-03-18T18:16:00.001-07:00

Behind every great wine there are always a number of hidden faces. In this picture damien is checking the specific gravity (sugar content) of his already fermenting Touriga nacioncal grapes for his "vintage port" style wine. In the background, damien's grandfather (pop) is listening carefully. Pop is 87 and is responsible for assisting damien with running the wineries pumps. Pop has been involved in damien's wine production since the first vintage in 2000. Pop lives just over the hill behind the winery and loves his home the Barossa. You can see he's proud of his work and he's proud of his grandson's work.

team photo

2008-03-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

This photo shows denise (james's fiance), james and damien standing among the monty. We've made our decision when to pick and now it's time to plan the fermentation technique. Currently we will stick with wild ferment. No yeast inoculation can be risky at higher Beaumes because some yeast can not survive the high alcohol environment however, I think we should be ok. 2008 ferments across the board in the Barossa have been slower than on average. This is something we will need to pay attention to when we consider post ferment maceration. I am very eager to extract a high amount of mouth-feel and velvety tannins for the wine. We must pay attention that we do not leave the wine on skins for too long however, as this has the potential to draw out bitter and harsher tannins, especially when we are working the skins (stirring the skins with the juice).

tasting the berries-when to harvest?

2008-03-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

Choosing when to harvest is probably the greatest decision toward the finished wine.
This photo shows Damien and James tasting the berries. For me, the berries were ready. I had not seen the Beaume/Acid/pH data but the tannins were velvety (no longer hard and bitter) and the balacnce between fruit sweetness and acid was great. Damien however, thinks that the berries still need more time to develop great fruit flavour depth. This is of course the crunch question-when to pick? I explained to Damien that what I hope to create is a wine that has a rich, velvety tannin structure with a fleshy mouthfeel and supporting acid. Fruit flavour is important but not the primary goal because the wine feel needs to not overwhelm our cuisine. Damien understood this and suggested we could harvest our grapes a week before his. Very trusting of Damien.

the montepulciano block 17/3/08

2008-03-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

All the wineos I spoke with would not believe me that Damien's montepulciano vines were still photosynthesising happily away so late in the year. We have had 16 straight days in Adelaide of 35 degrees C +. This heat wave was a nightmare for many wine-makers in warmer regions like the Barossa because over night all the blocks of shiraz and cabernet were ready to harvest. Damien normally brings in most of his blocks over a two week period, in 2008 it was more like 4 days. You can imagine the logistics of trying to find vats to ferment grapes in, tanks to store finished wines in before they go to barrel etc. And then there's montepulciano. As stated earlier, she's a bit like grenache, happy to stay hanging up to a month longer than most shiraz in the barossa.

Looking at the berries above you can see that there has been no sun-burn (causes bitter tannins in finished wines), there is a nice shading of the bunches and there has been no berry shrivel. No shrivel means that xylem and phloem (plant water and nutrient transporting vessels) are still functioning. The green, open leaves also show that the leaves are still alive and not "shutting down" and therefore photosynthesis is still taking place. Other surrounding vineyards planted with other varietals were already looking very weary, with yellow and drooping leaves.

Photosynthesis (PS) is the synthesis of sugars and amino acids in plants. PS takes place mainly in plant leaves but can also take place in berries. PS involves the intra-cellular splitting of water molecules to extract energy molecules (called electrons) which are then powered by light from the sun to stimulate a reaction pathway that generates energy molecules (ATP) and sugars.

Pinot Grigio - Secondary crop removal

2008-02-13T21:44:00.001-08:00

This image shows Marty (the Lane's viticulturalist) showing the team which bunches to remove. Pinot Grigio is highly vigerous and produces a large proportion of secondary crop. Secondary crop refers to grapes that form outside of the normal grape production zone and therefore in areas that are less able to supply the grapes with metabolites to ripen. Therefore secondary crops remain underripe when the rest of the fruit is already ripe. Secondary crops are removed so that photosynthates produced by the plant (like sugars) can concentrate into the better bunches. If secondary crop is included in the harvest the grape juice can be very acidic, unripe and can lead to very hard wines.

Pinot Grigio Bunch thinning pic 4/2/08

2008-02-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

This image shows the slope that the vineyard is on and views south. The piccadilly valley lies behind the camera. In the picture are Rob, Denise, Jerremy and Emily. Note the high canopies used for the pinot grigio vines. A high canopy helps control vigour by allowing naturally vigorous varieties grow a little more leaf area, which can then be harnessed for extra grape sugar production during berry development.

The Pinot Grigio bunch thinning team 4/2/08

2008-02-13T21:30:00.000-08:00

This photo shows the group that joined to help bunch thin the pinot grigio. See notes on early posting that explain why we are bunch thinning. Pinot grigio sets its fruit very differently to Montepulciano; there are a lot more bunches of grapes. If bunch thinning was not underaken there could be up to 20t/Ha of fruit on these vines but we drop this back to around 10t/Ha. Interestingly, Marty (the Lane's viticulturalist) described that having higher yields helps to maintain the berries acidity. If there were less bunches per vine, each bunch would ripen faster. This means acidity could rapidly decrease. Higher yield forces the bunches to maintain a slower decrease in acidity which is therefore easy to manage. Pictured are Priska, Rolf, Rob, Denise, James, Jackie, Emily, Tom and Jerremy. Thanks to the friends of Auge who lent a hand!

Montepulciano Bunch thinning @ Veraison (28/1/08)

2008-01-28T19:56:00.000-08:00

Today is the 28th Jan and the nine rows of Montepulciano in Marananga have reached 50% colouration = veraison. At this stage cell division within each berry has stopped and from now until harvest much of the carbohydrates synthesised by the vine will be directed to the berries where cell growth takes place. Research conducted by Damien during his viticultrual science-honours year at Adelaide University showed that to obtain the maximum benefit from bunch thinning it was best to wait until veraison.

Today we bunch thinned. If a vine had 10 bunches we reduced the total number of bunches to 5. A bit of background of bunch thinning. Bunch thinning is carried out to increase the quality of grapes remaining on the vine. It is done by cutting off bunches growing on weaker canes and those growing out of the protection of shade. The green berries are left to decompose back into the soil or to be eaten by our mascot dog rusky. Note-Ver jus can be made from these under-ripe berries.

In evolutionary terms, grape vines produce fruit in response to stress (e.g. drouhgt) to produce seeds so that their lineage can carry on when the next fair conditions for growth arise. Bunch thinning does not increase the concentration of sugars and other solids (like tannins) in the remaining berries in all varieties e.g. sauvignon blanc. However, wines made from Montepluciano have been shown to greatly increase in concentration and character if bunch thinning takes place.

Damien trains the team on bunch thinning (28/01/08)

2008-01-28T00:21:00.001-08:00

Damien explains to the team why we are bunch thinning and which bunches to drop. We probably dropped 40% of the crop removing all bunches on non-lignified canes (still green) and secondary bunches that had set outside of the fuit zone.
Left to right; Rebecca (friend), Denae (floor), Chris (friend) ,Damien (chef), Terry (Auge owner), Anne (floor manager),Craig (friend), Jen (2nd sommelier), Alan (floor).

The mascot has a spew

2008-01-28T00:13:00.001-08:00

The bunch thinning is completed and the team are ready to head back to the winery for a well deserved bbq. On the left stands Damien and his german fiance Eva, in the truck are Denae, Anne, Jen and I (all from Auge). Wielding the dog is Chris and partner Rebecca (friends of mine that lent a hand). The dog is Rusky-the spitz. Notice the huge laughs on every one's face. This is because Chris has just told us that Rusky has thrown-up on his shirt. Too many underripe berries for old Rusky!

Finding our philosophy for the Montepulciano

2008-01-28T00:02:00.000-08:00

This photo was taken in Damien's (wielding the pale ale) barrel and finished wine storage cellar. Here he tells the team a bit about his wines. Damien has two wine-labels, Tscharke; where he explores alternate varietals including montepulciano, zinfandel, touriga, tempranillo, graciano and albarinio. His other label Glaymond, produces the classic barossa varieties; shiraz, mouvedre, cabernet and grenache. This photo reminds me of the winemaker I worked with at Hamilton Russel in South Africa who daily reminded me that it takes a lot of good beer to make great wine.

2007-12-17T22:43:00.000-08:00

Barossan heritage

A view from Seppeltsfield south toward Krondorf & the Adelaide Hills. The vines are some of Damien's older hill-face planted shiraz. The palms pictured were planted during the great depression of the 30's, under philanthropic instruction of the Seppelts family, to keep their workers employed.

2007-12-17T22:27:00.000-08:00

The Vino by Auge bianco team @ the newly opened Lane restaurant

Looking back toward the Picadilly Valley, the Vino by Auge bianco team meets to discuss plans for harvest, anticipated in mid March 2008. Pictured; james erskine (auge sommelier), Marty Edwards-back right (The Lane vineyard manager), John Edwards (the Lane's captain & wine-maker) & Ben Tolstoshev-front right (The Lane's sales manager).

2007-12-17T22:13:00.001-08:00

The Vino by Auge Rosso team

The team meets in Tscharke's Montepulciano vineyard in the red sandy, cracking-clay soils of Marananga, Barossa. Behind are the vineyards of Roennfeldt Rd (Greenock Ck), Run Rig (Torbreck) leading back toward Stonewell region. Pictured; james erskine (auge sommelier), damien tscharke (the master of montepulciano) & jen pedder (auge 2nd sommelier). Damien's experience has shown him that Montepulciano (like Grenache) likes to hang on the vine. Harvest is anticipated in mid April and the vineyard is looking good.

2007-12-16T22:30:00.001-08:00

Bunch formation

right
MONTEPULCIANO
Marananga, Barossa
16 Dec 2007

below
PINOT GRIGIO
Hahndorf, Adelaide Hills
11 Dec. 2007

2007-12-16T22:18:00.000-08:00

the lane pinot grigio vineyard

South east facing, therefore morning sun but shaded afternoons. 1850 vines/Ha. Silicate (sand) with limestone, over iron pebble interspersed clay. Berry maturity increases toward top of vineyard.

Auge

2007-12-05T20:46:00.001-08:00

Auge Ristorante was founded in 2000 by Maria and Terry Soukoulis with the aim to serve great innovative Italian food and wine in a calm stylish setting.