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.
Grace Farm has been part of the Augusta Margaret River Shire’s “Our Patch” programme for a number of years and we look forward to the annual visit from Cowaramup Primary Year 6 class in early spring. Our Patch is a brilliant programme allowing students to visit sites with a water catchment and to learn about different land uses. We have been told the undeniable highlight of the day each year is finding scorpions and hearing about their fascinating habits and habitat with our multi-talented viticulturist Tim Quinlan at Grace Farm. Tim shares his knowledge with the kids and his passion for the scorpion is palpable. He explains that the sandy soils inhabited by scorpions are also where we find tiny...
Thank you to those of you who made it to our Spring Tasting event on Sunday 13 September. It was such a beautiful day and it was fantastic to share some of our new wines with you. We feel very lucky to have been able to host this event considering the challenges presented this year.Our new releases are now available online and you can read a little bit about them below. 2019 Chardonnay Hand-picked at optimum ripeness and gently whole bunch pressed into French oak barriques where indigenous yeasts completed the fermentation to dryness.Matured for 10 months in a combination of 30% new and 70% used French oak barriques. Aromas of mango skin, pineapple, flint and almond meal emanate and entice...
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%...
