2008 Vintage at Amietta in the Geelong Region

Nicholas Clark at Amietta Vineyard in the Moorabool Valley of the Geelong Wine Region has been doing it tough for the past couple of vintages. Frosts, drought and climate change have all made life difficult. Vintage has been earlier than usual, and the varieties are all ripening together leading to logistical problems at vintage.

But this year, after some angst, he managed to organise to get his grapes picked at the right time... It's a great story.

Read the inside story of the 2008 Vintage at Amietta in the Geelong Region

More vintage reports

A new spin on grenache

Grenache is a very underrated variety in Australia. It was written off as a substandard variety in the 1980s, but some old vineyards were spared the widespread vine pulls of that time. It makes great varietal wine as well as putting the G power into GSM Blends. I reckon the best rose wines are also made from grenache

Jane Faulkner has written the variety up in a recent edition of The Age, based around some tastings of Spinifex wines.

SEE:
A new spin on grenache Article by Jane Faulkner

Grenache is not always regarded as an alternative variety. But it makes great wine and that's why I have a
grenache page on vinodiversity

Swiss Italian Festa at Daylesford

The Swiss Italian Festival at Daylesford honours the Swiss and Italian Pioneers who settled in the region in the middle of the 19th Century. It is being Held from 18-27 April.

There will be plenty of wine and food on display. Guest Chef is Adam Pizzini of Rinaldo's at Dal Zotto Winery in the King Valley, well away from Daylesford, but he will be featuring some great Italian wine varieties to pair with some home style Italian cooking.




Swiss Italian Festa details and program

Rutherglen Winery Walkabout

Rutherglen is the place to be for the Queens Birthday weekend in 2008. You can see plenty of alternative varietal wines, check out the list on Vinodiversity's Rutherglen wineries page

Sat 07 Jun 2008 to Mon 09 Jun 2008

More details here

More Aussie wine events here

Vinodiversity gets a facelift

I was inspired by the image above Autumn Colours in a Vineyard, Barbera Grape Variety, Barolo, Piemonte, Italy to start a bit of a makeover on Vinodiversity.
The Image comes from Art.com who have a wonderful online shop with absolutely tons of art and photographic prints on all subjects.

So if you want to redecorate your palce you know where to look. There is an optional framing service as well.

But I'm busy redecorating Vinodiversity, with some help from these wonderful images.

So check out the new Vinodiversity home page. If you click on the "wine blog" item on the nav bar you will see some other pages which have been given the makeover as well.

I'd loove any feedback about the page.

'Bastard' of a vintage - The Age report

The Age's Jeni Port reports on the problems besetting the 2008 Vintage in Australia, where a warmer summer has lead to a difficult vintage in some areas. Extreme heat during early March caused problems in South Australian wine areas. The time of vintage was earlier in most regions.

During most vintages there is a lag between the time of ripening of earlier and later maturing varieties. Wineries use this to move the wine from earlier varieties through the fermenting vats. This year the time lag has been compressed and thus the capacity of many wineries was stretched and compromises had to be made.

See Jeni Port's full report in the Age

'Bastard' of a vintage - Epicure - Entertainment - theage.com.au

For more 2008 Vintage reports see
This Page

STRANGE BIRD Wine Trail ABC Landline item

Wineries in the Granite Belt region of Queensland have developed a program called Strange Bird. It is a Wine trail to encourage visitors to the region to seek out the alternative varieties being grown at 17 of the local vineyards.

The Strange Bird program was featured on the ABC Landline Program on 30 March. Many of the innovative winemakers had their say about the region and the new varieties.

You can see the transcript of the show here
Transcript of the Landline Program- 30/03/2008: STRANGE BIRD . Australian Broadcasting Corp

The Granite Belt Wine Country Page for more info and a Strange Bird Map