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Someone ought to tell second children that they don’t have to try to prove that they are as good as the firstborn! Not content with studying Anthropology on exchange in Spain this year, in Spanish, our middle daughter Matilda has decided that she needed to do something a bit edgier… so she is racing in the inaugural Mongol Derby.
What’s the Mongol Derby? The longest and toughest horse race in the world…. 1000kms across the Mongolian steppes on half wild Mongolian ponies, dodging wolves and rabid dogs… and other riders…

I’ll let Tildy tell you.

“My name is Matilda Branson. I’m a 21 year old Australian student studying in Spain on exchange, and in August I’m off to Mongolia to ride 1000km in two weeks across the Mongolian steppes in the Mongol Derby, the toughest, longest horse race in the world. Riding hardy Mongolian ponies and living on mutton and mare’s milk, the race path will follow Ghengis Khaan’s original pony express changing ponies every 40km, all in the name of adventure and, most importantly, for charity.
Dubbed ‘The Mongol Derby’, it is the inaugural race organised by ‘The Adventurists’, an organisation that hosts a plethora of adventure-based rallies and races in their fight to raise money for charity (for the Mongolian nomads, some of the poorest people in the world) while at the same time creating an event to cater for the red blooded adventurers amongst us.
With only twenty-five competitors selected from throughout the world including myself representing Australia, the Mongol Derby is going to be a race like no other, an ultimate test in endurance. We have to carry all our gear - 10kg limit - food, water. No roads, no signs. Just me and the desert, and 24 other maniacs…but’s it for a good cause!
Being raised on a farm in central Victoria, in the southern part of Australia, and having grown up with horses, I’m ready to race.

Tally-ho!

Matilda Branson, the Hopeful Champ of the Mongol Derby.”

Matilda has to raise a lot of money to cover the cost of participation and the charity contribution, so naturally, she has turned to her parents as number one sponsors, so we thought we’d offer a special Mongol Derby Dozen to the people on our mailing list, with a large chunk of each case sold going to Matilda’s assault on the derby. Stay tuned!
To find out more about the inaugural Mongol Derby, check out the following links:
Her website for the Derby is http://mongolderby09.theadventurists.com/matildainmongolia, and the email for directly giving to the charity is http://www.justgiving.com/matildainmongolia
To read more about the race itself, go here:
http://mongolderby.theadventurists.com/

Phew! Another vintage almost over… we still have Petit Verdot burbling away in the vats, but now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. All those days and nights, plunging, plunging, plunging… finding that your ferments have started racing and are getting bloody hot, just when there is a power outage on a 46 degree day, so we can’t run the cooling system… now thats stress!
People keep asking me what vintage was like this year, and they ask this with a serious and concerned look on their face. After all the doom and gloom the industry was spouting earlier this season, about heat damage, smoke taint, etc… well, I’m pleased to say we have no smoke taint (too far away from the fires) and that I reckon it was a cracker of a vintage! Sure, yields were down, but that’s more to do with conditions last year, when this year’s baby bunches were being formed, deep within the bud tissue for this year. You could see at flowering that there just weren’t going to be as many grapes on each bunch. There just wasn’t a space for them on the bunch frames. So it was never going to be a big yielding year, which is fine by us! We aim for around 2 -2.5 tonnes to the acre at the best of times.
It is true that some varieties were adversely affected by the heat. The Gamay never stood a chance; a variety that dislikes normal summer heat at the best of times, the grapes turned into bunches of raisins overnight, after a couple of days of over-40 degree heat. So no 2009 Gamay, unfortunately.
The viognier struggled a bit, but the wine we made is looking pretty smart… currently it is settling, then a bit of fining, and then it will be ready to bottle. Smells fantastic; pears, peaches, citrus… mmm.
The biggest problem with the heat was defoliation. The sangiovese lost a fair bit of leaf, almost overnight, so we had to drop half of what was a considerable crop load after veraison, to kickstart the ripening process, which had stalled a bit. In the end, we picked some very nice fruit, and the resulting wine has a fantastic aroma of wild cherries… I shall be watching it over the coming year with great interest as it matures in barrique.
The shiraz and tempranillo look brilliant - super intense colour and aroma, without being overripe. A really good mouthfeel already at this early stage. The merlot… well, let me rave about the merlot. I reckon that merlot is underrated badly in this country. This year, the merlot in our vineyard just cruised through the heat; didn’t lose any leaf, didn’t get scorched…we picked some of the best merlot grapes we have ever grown. They were perfectly ripe - the seeds were dark brown and nutty, fantastic intense blackcurrant lolly flavour, no shrivel at all. And the wine we pressed last week was so dark, so perfumed, so intense in every way. If we could grow everything like that, I’d be very happy!
So we are all smiles up here. Very busy, with still some ferments going; wine to rack and transfer to new barriques, malo to monitor… but soon we will have all the wines safely in barrels, tucked up for the winter. Then it will be time for a holiday! (or, more realistically, to sow our crops… no peace for the wicked!)

I really think that 2008 is looking like being one of our best vintages. Although it is early days yet, the 2008 wines are really showing excellent varietal character; outstanding colour and flavour, really ripe without being overly so. I reckon that the vines ( and vignerons!) got it right this year, (although perhaps I am trying to take too much credit here…). Anyway, I am pretty excited about these wines. The Tempranillo just looks brilliant, dense and flavourful. The Sangiovese, although not a heavy style, has oodles of flavour - an open barrique fills the winery with smells of wild cherries and the Tuscan countryside (although perhaps I am imagining this!) I think the 08 Shiraz will be our best so far. We did a bigger pick at 13.5 Baume than usual, and then one at 14, and then a couple of barriques of very, very ripe fruit quite late, from the younger block of Shiraz. I am really impressed with the fine tannins, the excellent acid, the flavour and aroma is like someone threw mulberries and blackberries into the vat, and the colour is … just wow. Mad Uncle Jack’s Petit Verdot is very consistent - pretty much the same every year, what a champion this variety is. Big, black, nosey, BIG. And I am pretty happy with the Merlot, which can be a bit variable. This year, at this stage, it is leaning to the fruit rather than anything else, although I reckon there is a hint of herbs in there… interesting to see how it comes out.
The Gamay, you ask? Currently in tank, being a typical revolting teenager. Every year I wonder if it will work out; every year, it does!
We bottled our 08 Marsanne/Viognier earlier this year, so it will be interesting to see what it looks like over summer. And the rose? This year, made from Gamay, with the result that it was a horrible teenager too for a while… then I forgot about it a bit, and found it, tucked away in two older barriques, and it looked very nice… better bottle it!

I love it when I get to this time of year in the winery. I have been racking the 2008 wines over the last few weeks, and it is a really good time to have a look at the wines, and also to compare the effects of the individual barrels on each wine. We use Sirugue barriques here, a French cooperage, and we use a range of forests and toasting levels. Having experimented with a few coopers in the past, we keep coming back to Sirugue. Of the new barriques used for the 2008 wines, it is very obvious which barrels, say, are contributing chunkier tannins, and which are giving some astringent characters… which are a bit too “soft” on the wines, and which are giving some really nice mouthfeel. The same type of barrel - same cooper, oak and toasting level - can have a different effect on Shiraz compared to Tempranillo, for example, and so I take note of this, to refer back to it later. I also make a few decisions about matching oak and wine - for example, some of the Shiraz is in barriques with very boxy tannins, and some heavy toast characters, which, after tasting the wines, I reckon will suit the Petit Verdot better. Of course, we blend all the barrels of one variety together at racking, so that what might be a little too tannic in one barrique ends up complementing the whole very well.

We are having a new release dinner on October the 2nd, at Church St. Enoteca, Richmond, Melbourne. It will be great. Ken, the sommelier, and their chef, are working out a degustation dinner that will complement our wines. We will send invites out in the next week or so, but if you’re interested, let me know, as places are limited. I am looking forward to it - yummy food, great company, talking about wines… we’re going to officially release ALL the 2005 wines. Many of you have had the 05 Tempranillo, Sangiovese and Gamay, but now we are releasing the 05 Shiraz, Merlot and Mad Uncle Jack’s Petit Verdot. So all the 05s will be shown , as well as the odd wine that I think might be interesting, even if it is a bit young… a sneak preview, if you like. So I hope we’ll be able to catch up with some of our favourite customers and friends, for a winey, eaty sort of night!

Something that I dread as a winemaker is when I come to a wine that I haven’t looked at for a while. It always seems to be that, just when you were happy with the last taste you had of a wine in barrel, say… the next time you go to show it off to someone (a wine crony, or interested person), it has either turned into a putrid monster or a shy teenager, all curled up on itself and refusing to talk to anyone…
So it was with some trepidation that, upon my return from South America, I had a look at ALL the wines. All the bottled stuff; all the stuff we’re about to release; all the 07 stuff in barrels awaiting bottling; and all the baby 08 wines. And I’m happy to report that, overall, I’m pretty happy. I think we have some great wines coming up, really showing great varietal character, finely structured tannins, and an intensity of flavour as the vines mature.
Some of the ones that particularly caught my fancy:
The 2005 Merlot is due to be released in September/October, and I think it is the best Merlot we have made so far. Absolutely intense blackberry; a hint of cassis, slightly minty; fine, supple tannins and a good, lengthy finish. No empty spot in this Merlot!
2007 Tempranillo - looks like it is going to be a repeat of the 2005, some very beautiful flavours here, with the plentiful yet silky tannins typical of our Tempranillo.
2008 Sangiovese - perhaps because I have been working on this wine today, it sticks with me, but the aroma of this wine is all pervading, wild cherries… I look forward to seeing how this progresses.
2006 Shiraz - a really classy Shiraz. Not a giant Heathcote blockbuster, because I have been deliberately going away from that style over the last few years. The trouble with those big Heathcotes is that after one glass, I get silly, and after two, I fall over. Not good for a dinner party! So I have been constructing our Shiraz out of three parcels of fruit, picked at different levels of ripeness, so that I get a variety of characters, as well as keeping the alcohol down. The wine is more elegant, more classical. I hate to say it at the risk of sounding pretentious, but more “French” - but what the hell, the French make some fabulous wines, so what is the matter with trying to emulate them? Great intensity of flavour, but with a finer tannin structure… perhaps a bit leaner in some ways, but there is plenty of fruit there to support it… I like it. I think it will be a wine for those of us who like to remain urbane and witty at dinner parties…
07 Gamay - Bottling next week, and some really interesting things going on in this, which is my Pinot substitute! More savoury than previous Gamays, perhaps. I like it.
So these are the ones that caught my attention. Nothing upset me - although I do have one wine, a white, bottled years ago, that I’d rather not think about, and still unreleased. One of my daughters is drinking her way through that one with her mates at uni… but you never know what might happen… wines change a lot as they age.. otherwise it will remain my guilty secret, shared only with the denizens of Ormond College!

I always hate these tanks. They are only as good as the seals around the lid of the tank. For those who don’t know, these tanks have a lid that floats on the wine, with a blow up tube, like a bike tube, around the rim of the lid. You pump up a thing exactly like a bike pump, and the tube inflates, sealing tightly against the side of the tank, at whichever height the wine is at. Great in theory - it means there is no headspace, and therefore no oxygen can get to the wine. HOWEVER the bloody things spring leaks in the tube… or the pump fails…which is exactly what has happened. Andrew has just told me that one of the pumps isn’t working, and so is frantically trying to repair it. Of course the tank is full of wine… the pump was working fine when we tested it earlier… GOD I hate these things!

I am ashamed to say that I am the worst blogger in the whole of cyberspace. So apologies to anyone who has been checking. However, here I am at last; we have had a great trip to South America, which was both restorative, and incredibly interesting, with the intrepid Travelling Bransons being well out of our comfort zones on many occasions… but it was a fantastic experience. Not much of wine note to mention, except for a particularly good Sauvignon Blanc that I had in Santiago… however, I enjoyed the whole bottle, which had the effect of dulling my memory for things such as name and vineyard!
Things here have been getting busy over the last few weeks, as we approach the bottling of the 2007 wines. This involves making last minute adjustments, to make sure that what goes into the bottle is the very best it can be. The wines are then removed from barrique, and blended in tank, to await bottling. The wines are looking pretty smart, I must say; at this stage, the stand-out wine for me is the 2007 Tempranillo, with the Sangiovese also looking pretty flash. A few months ago, I thought the Petit Verdot was looking a bit drab, but it has reinvented itself in the meantime, and is looking like the big, broad shouldered monster that it is at it’s best. The 07 Shiraz is another one I’m quietly pretty pleased with - a very elegant wine, good nose, finely structured. We have been using Sirugue barrels for some years now, and I am getting a better feel for which oak forests and which toasting levels suit our wines best.
We bottle the wines next week, and I’ve decided to put all wines except for the Shiraz, Merlot and Petit Verdot under screw cap this year. Those of you who know me will know I don’t love screwcaps, but we’ll just see how it goes… I am nothing if not open minded…

The recent rain and warm weather have caused the vines to grow like weeds, with the Shiraz, Sangiovese, and Marsanne particularly verdant. The shoots on these vines have grown very long, very quickly, and some of the vines in the younger block don’t have the strength to hold them up; in the wind, the vines start rolling to either side of the wire. To prevent this, and to allow the sun to penetrate into the vine canopy, we lift each side of the vine canopy with foliage wires. The wires stay on the posts from year to year; we drop them when we prune the vines, then lift them when the time comes during the growing season. And that time is now. It is a tedious job, walking up and down the vine rows, lifting wires, and knocking off any shoots that have grown out of the vine trunk. To make it less tedious, I recently acquired an iPod, of which I understand NONE of the technology; all I know is that my eldest daughter, Miranda, put a heap of audio books on it for me, so that I can blissfully listen to them all the while. For the first time ever, wire lifting is fun. And I have the added joy of knowing that I can have lots of cheese and wine at the end of the day, having walked off so many calories in the vineyard! (Although to be quite honest, at the end of the day, I am quite exhausted, and my feet hurt. My horse likes this, though. Sometimes I am too tired to work her!)
One thing, though, it does give you a very good opportunity to look at the vines, and see how they are travelling. You can see if any disease is rearing its ugly head, for example. We don’t spray very often, and use the preventative spray, sulfur, rather than some of the other nasty chemicals. My only spray so far (apart from a sulfur at bud burst to control mites) was a sulfur spray a few weeks ago, as well as a bacterial spray to get rid of the Light Brown Apple moth that can cause havoc with bunches. It has rained since then, so the vines are currently unprotected. However, with the wind and the sun that we get here, mildews are unlikely to be much of an issue. But I do enjoy the chance to see how flowering is going; how big the bunches are going to be; and how many of them. In the next few weeks, I’ll get out and do some bunch counts. But first, many, many more wires to lift! I shall be extremely fit; look out for the toned vigneronne, striding vigourously up and down the rows, with my puppies Flora and Pippy panting along behind me. But don’t call out; I won’t hear you, thanks to my trusty iPod!

The last couple of weeks, the weather has warmed up, and the wines in barrels have warmed up too. This causes any microbes in the wines to get active as well. Malolactic bacteria are microbes found in unfinished wines . Often they are added, in dried form, by the winemaker, to ensure a large population, as their presence is desirable. We don’t do this; we reckon the bacteria are endemic in our winery and the wines will go through malo in their own time. Their role in winemaking is in the conversion of the less palatable Malic acid to the softer Lactic acid, and this they do very well. There is some discussion about whether the resulting wine is any better, or even if the difference can be detected, but the overall benefit is that the wine is rendered more stable. Known as “malolactic fermentation”, (although it is not really a fermentation process), or “malo”, the process produces large amounts of carbon dioxide, along with some of the most gruesome and foul smelling gases you will ever encounter! (These smells are transient - they disappear fairly readily with a good, aerative racking.) So obviously, if you can get this process to occur BEFORE it is in a bottle, it is much better! (Unless corks exploding out of bottles in the cupboard under the stairs suits you.).

Sulfur is the enemy of the malolactic bacteria, so until malo is finished, you cannot sulfur the wine, which leaves it in a relatively unprotected state with regard to other, more sinister bacteria. So it is obviously best if the wine goes through malo fairly early in its career, and usually, most of our wines go through just after the initial fermentation at vintage. However, at that time the weather starts to cool, the nights in particular, and the later picked wines, or wines with particularly high alcohol levels, tend to go through the malo process slower, meaning that sometimes, when the winter chills hit, the bacteria become inactive, leaving unfinished business.
The first vintage I made, in 2002, in the machinery shed, frightened the hell out of me. I hadn’t realised how violent malo could be, and it wasn’t until I unbunged a barrel, to proudly show my wine to a friend, that I discovered it. Thick, purple goo started to gurgle and ooze out of the bunghole, looking nothing like the wine I remembered from a few weeks ago, and certainly nothing you’d want to show off about, so I quickly stuffed the bung back in, and stood back, relieved to have stoppered the evil genie that had obviously taken up residence in my barrel. Like a geyser, the wine shot straight up into the air about 12 feet; the bung hit the roof of the machinery shed with a bang, and bounced off the tractor roof. All I could see was my beautiful, hard won merlot going everywhere, (all that tending! All that picking!) so I flung myself over the top of the barrel, to save what surely could only be the last few litres out of the 220 litre barrique. When the geyser had dried up, I retrieved the bung, and then gingerly checked the others. After I had the same reaction from a couple of other barrels, I knew it was time to call the doctor. I rang a couple of experienced winemaking mates, and shakily told my story. They laughed, and told me that my wines “…were behaving like perfectly normal babies”,and not to put the bungs in so tight for a while…
That vintage was a very steep learning curve for us!
These days, we are more relaxed about these things. However, a few of our wines hadn’t finished before the 2007 winter, and it was a somewhat anxious Andrew who called me while I was away one day, to let me know that the wines had woken up, and bungs were shooting out of barrels under the pressure of carbon dioxide building up. So we eased all the bungs, loosening them in the actively bubbling, crackling barrels and putting valves in the barrels that were not quite as active. The S-shaped valves have water in them, and allow carbon dioxide out of the barrel, bubbling through the water, but do not allow air back into the barrel. The barrels that were actively going through malo, we are able to leave the bungs sitting loosely in the bunghole, as the amount of carbon dioxide being produced stops any air getting in anyway.

This was a couple of weeks ago, and the only wine not through yet is the 2007 Petit Verdot. It is still grumbling away, and smelling pretty yukky. However, with the current run of warm weather, it should finish in a few days, and I’ll then be able to continue with the next winemaking thing - racking. (Where the clear wine is removed carefully from the barriques, leaving impurities and particles behind; the barrels cleaned, the wines sulfured and then returned to the cleaned barrels, for the next phase of maturation.) A time when foul language becomes the language of the day, as the pump refuses to prime, and I overflow the barrels while I’m off doing something else. Stay tuned!