Greetings!

We hope all is going well for you!

Here we are again with a few words from The Shed.

The idea is to try and keep this newsletter short and sweet so we can get this out to you as soon as possible, as we’re running a little behind schedule. Our June newsletter has become a July newsletter. I’m sure we’re not alone, but life seems to be getting busier and time just disappears too quickly. I had better get a start on this newsletter before our end of year newsletter is due.

So here are a few words on what’s been happening here on the Hill.

Vintage 2013

First crush for 2013 was on the 3rd February and the last grapes through the crusher were on the 13th March. All looked to be pretty normal, but had we stuck to our regular pattern of crushing only reds and those grapes suited to fortifying, vintage could have been over in just a couple of weeks.

Vintage 2013 kicked into gear here at Dutschke with us crushing a small load of Chardonnay from the 86 Block on the St. Jakobi vineyard. Having made a bit of Chardonnay from this block in 2011, (so that we’d have a white wine of our own on the table for the annual Shed dinner), we thought we should make another, as the 2011 had all gone. The smell of white juice fermenting entertained us for almost a couple of weeks, as we didn’t see any red grapes come into the winery for another 10 days.