The Merlot harvest started at the end of last weekend and it was exciting to spend the weekend working on the reds. The aroma of yeast and fermentation filled the winery. Its fantastic!

By Monday the Merlot was mostly in the cellar and we could start working on remontage or “pumping over” and Pigeage or “punching down”. Remontage is the process of pumping red wine up from the bottom of the tank and over the skins so that the carbon dioxide is pushed to the surface and released. In Pigeage we break up the skins that form at the surface and submerge them to extract colour, tannins, flavour and aromas from the grape solids.

Problem for this years Merlot are the thick skins which struggled to ripen while sugar levels rose but time will tell regarding quality.

Tuesday started very cold, with a sense of winter in the air and temperatures of just 1 degree but it was back to focusing on whites and we put the 2018 Reserve in barrel with high hopes of another great wine.