| Vintage started around two weeks earlier than usual here in the Swan and first to come off the vines was our Verdelho. Beautiful fruit flavour, good natural acidity and delicate mouthfeel. All excellent characters of the years wine. Chardonnay was next harvested with similar characters on offer and presented lots of flavour and finesse. Our Chenin was picked soon after and the sometimes present bunch-rot was barely evident in 2020. The finished wine shows true character and some nice green apple and stonefruit notes at this stage. The white wines are all now sitting in stainless steel tanks on very fine yeast lees with sulphur levels all settled. The wines will now sit for a couple of months to slowly settle naturally and we will continue to monitor the sulphur levels in these tanks. We have made some beautiful reds to compliment the white wine range. First was our Swan Malbec which was harvested in early February. After a five day fermentation with the skins, our reds are pressed off into stainless steel tanks and the remainder of fermentation is completed. Malolactic fermentation is underway at this stage also. The reds will remain in stainless tanks until they are settled, sulphured and racked off, ready for oak. At this stage July is likely to be when we will put this years reds into our French oak barrels, generally for a 12 month maturation period. Our second parcel of red was our Petit Verdot. Again I’m very happy with the fruit quality and the resulting wine shows typical floral notes, spice and also the hallmark rich intense colour. Moving south to Manjimup, we have also harvested a beautiful parcel of Pinot Noir. The finished wine shows lovely cherry hints, delicate tannin structure and a wonderful length of flavour. A combination of clones are used in the vineyard and we think this years Pinot is as good as we have seen. So whilst things are a bit quiet now post vintage we have a chance to catch up on some jobs around the winery and reflect over the hard work that has been put in since October last year. Arch Kosovich Winemaker |