Reflecting on Vintage 2022
We’ve officially wrapped up Vintage 2022. It was another busy year with a unique set of challenges but our determined and driven team have completed the harvest and crush for the year. We had an abundance of new staff on board for this years Vintage. Cellar Manager Taylor and Food & Beverage Technologist Stephen experienced their first-ever Vintage, whilst Winemaker Emily and Production Admin Phoebe experienced their first Idyll vintage. It was also Blairs first Vintage as Senior Winemaker and his organisation, leadership and wealth of winery knowledge contributed to a successful vintage period. We caught up with Phoebe, Taylor, Emily, Stephen and Blair to get their thoughts on Vintage 2022.
Phoebe, Taylor, Stephen & Emily – this was your first vintage at Idyll – how would you describe it in one word?
Stephen: Educational
Emily: Exciting
Phoebe: Educational
Taylor: Engaging
What was your highlight of the vintage period?
Stephen: My highlight was the grape crushing process and the varying things we do with crushed grapes and the way we transform them to suit our needs.
Emily: Witnessing the hard work and dedication shown by the Cellar Supervisors, Managers, and Blair – our newest Senior Winemaker.
Phoebe: Learning further processes of vintage outside of lab operations and gaining a further understanding of how a winery works through vintage.
Taylor: Meeting with all the new and happy faces every day. I made sure I got to see every staff member each day and it was always good seeing how positive everyone was even though it was incredibly busy and often challenging.
Blair: Seeing the growth and development of the whole crew as they learned new skills and how to operate a range of machinery and equipment.
What are you most proud of from Vintage 2022?
Emily: The teamwork and selflessness that everyone showed to achieve the results we have. With a relatively new group, we were able to complete vintage unscathed, continuing to improve on skills and put in place efficient practices that will be useful in the future.
Phoebe: I’m most proud of Blair as he was able to coordinate Vintage with exceptional leadership and organisation for his first Vintage as Senior Winemaker.
Taylor: I am most proud of the team of people we had. We had a crew with minimal experience on some of the large pieces of vintage equipment we operate, but everyone was always willing to help out, and as a team, we taught each other how everything runs (with some help from Blair). We were able to operate our float system better than we ever have by taking our time and implementing efficient training regimes.
Blair: I think the whole Vintage crew did an incredible job to learn new skills, gain further knowledge and complete the whole crushing process to an incredible standard.
Blair, now that crushing is done what is left to do to the grapes?
Crushing grapes is only the first step of a long process for turning grapes into wines. Straight after being crushed, white grapes are pressed to extract every last drop of juice from the grapes and to ensure they remain colourless. The next stage is to clarify the wines so that they have no solids in them. For red grapes, once crushed they are sent straight to tank to ferment on skins so that the wine has the dark red colour. After the winemakers are satisfied with the colour, the grapes are pressed to extract all juice before going through malolactic fermentation to remove the tart taste from wines so that they’re a lot smoother.
Blair & Emily – what wines are looking good from harvest 2022?
Emily: The whites are looking fresh and vibrant, and the reds are looking promising. We’re really happy with the result.
Blair: The reds – particularly the Shiraz – are looking good. They have a vibrant colour and strong Shiraz characteristics. Hopefully these grapes produce some award winning wines.
If you’re keen to taste our wines from previous vintages, check out our wine range or head to our local Cellar Door.
