The team at Grace Farm Wines is thrilled to announce the completion of yet another successful vintage! The 2023 season has been nothing short of spectacular, particularly for the white varieties. The Viticulturist, Tim Quinlan, has shared his thoughts on the season, and we're excited to share them with you.
Savour the taste of summer all year round with our latest release, a crisp and refreshing chardonnay. The subtle oak, lovely fruit characters and saline acidity make the 2022 Chardonnay an excellent food wine. Try it with Sal’s Pasta alla Gricia, which has become a Mair family favourite.
After months of dedication in the vineyard, vintage is here. Timing is everything. Walking the blocks of vines Tim meticulously studies each vine and carefully removes a good number of sample bunches from full rows. We stop at the semillon block. Tim is elated and explains this will be the best season we have had with our semillon.
Our first, small-batch Malbec was unplanned, but has turned out to be one of the finest wines to emerge from Grace Farm. In winemaking it's important to have the flexibility to embrace what seasonal shifts offer. Read about how the 2017 Malbec came into existence.
Challenging vintages seem to make the wine more memorable. Vintage 2017 presented the type of curve balls that call for critical decision making in order to protect the grapes as harvest approaches. In spring 2016 the start of the growing season was characterized by unusually low temperatures which held the vine phenology (growth stages) back. The normal seasonal milestones such as bud burst, shoot expansion and flowering occurred up to 30 days later than in typical years. Going into summer it was apparent that we would have a later harvest of whites and reds than we had seen in well over a decade. Mild temperatures, summer rains and up to four-day stretches of relative humidity ranging from 95 to 99%...
