New Halliday rating and Barossa At Home review

It is finally time to catch our breath as the previous months have been exceptionally busy. The good news is that our new labels are due to be printed this week so our 2008 Eden Valley Riesling and 2006 Shiraz Cabernet will be on the shelves adorned with the revamped labels sometime in July. It has been a long process but finally we came up with a design that kept in line with our original branding but smartened it up somewhat. I cannot wait to see them on the bottles!

Another exciting event for the week was a rating and short review of our 2008 Riesling (rated 4 and a half glasses and 92 points) from James Halliday so keep an eye out for the 2010 James Halliday Wine Companion to read James' full review. It normally hits the retail shelves in August.

Our Barossa At Home weekend was a success despite the last-minute cancellation of our dinner. We simply didn't sell enough tickets to make it a viable proposition but on speaking with other participants, we were not alone. That did not dampen our spirits for the weekend's wine tastings and it certainly proved to be successful in sales and in meeting new faces who ventured out in the chilly weather. All going well, we may try to arrange a similar event (a tasting and dinner) with our Collective counterparts in the warmer months.

The art display by the Bethany Art Group brought extra people out to visit us and it was terrific to see some of the artists attend. Their works were stunning and certainly brought the old stable to life. Many thanks to Tony and Phyl for all the work they did to get the display up in time.

James is getting organised to go to Brisbane for the Purple Palate events, and pruning in between. We have had lots of rain this winter so far and he has done well to keep on top of it. Not an easy task when he also has a full-time job elsewhere. It won't be long til I am up on the hill as well tying the vines on and before we know it, harvest will be here again.

As for now though, it is perfect weather for enjoying a glass of red at night by the fire. Winter is my favourite time of year and it is lovely to hear the squelching of the soil underfoot again. The vineyard is looking happy with itself and no doubt will do us well again this coming year after such good winter conditions.