We are pleased to be partnering with James St Bar & Kitchen at Northbridge’s Double Tree by Hilton for a 4-course dinner matched with 5 wines, including the award-winning 2015 Bottle Aged Chenin.

 Friday, 15th October 2021
 6pm – 9:30pm AWST
 $119 per person

Third-generation assistant winemaker and viticulturist, Ray Kosovich will take you on a journey as he delves into the family’s winemaking venture – which have produced some of the Swan Valley’s most iconic wines.

Limited spaces are available. For more info or to book, please visit https://bit.ly/TasteofSVTix

SOLD OUT

This year we have chosen a wine flight featuring six different varietals from our portfolio. We take your on a journey from harvesting to bottling. We have chosen, amongst others, a white wine which will not be released at the cellar door until our centenary next year, a barrel sample of a red wine which will be bottled later in the year and an aged wine being carefully cellared and waiting for its time to shine.

Each wine will be matched to a carefully thought out morsel of food to show how food and wine can work together.

The tasting is limited to only 12 people and will be held in our hand dug 1927 below ground cellar.

Follow the link to order your ticketshttps://www.entwinedinthevalley.com.au/Events-and-Tickets/Winemaker%E2%80%99s-Flight

Vintage started in the Swan slightly earlier than normal with warm weather in the early part of summer giving a flying start to the growing season.  We experienced excellent conditions in and around the lead up to harvest with some rain at the right time and then plenty of warm weather after verasion.  Crop levels were on the lighter side which gave us strong flavoured fruit and the other noticeable factor this year was the higher natural acid levels in all varieties.  Our P.h. levels were really surprising and very little adjustment was needed for the wines.

Our Chardonnay was harvested in late January.  The Swan Chardonnay is some of the best we’ve seen and surprised us with its fruit flavour, finesse and perfect acid levels.  Highlights again were the Chenin parcels.  We processed two batches of beautiful grapes in the first week of February and the resulting wine is very exciting.  The finished wine shows true character with nice fresh apple and stone fruit notes evident at this early stage.

Our Cabernet Sauvignon was picked in the last week of January.  This fruit has been put exclusively into our 2021 Cabernet Rose’.  The wine opens up with an attractive red berry note with a touch of spice; it has a beautiful light to medium salmon colour when made from Cabernet Sauvignon.

Malbec and Petit Verdot are both leading the way in our Swan red wine vineyard.  Our Malbec was harvested in early February and after five days of fermentation on skins, the wine was pressed off and the remainder of fermentation is carried out in stainless steel tank.  The Petit Verdot was harvested 11 days later and is now also waiting transferring into oak casks, where out reds generally age for around 12 months.  Petit Verdot is a variety very well suited to the region and shows violet floral notes, spicy hints and the hallmark rich intense colour synonymous with the variety.

Rounding out our Swan vineyard was the production of some fortified Verdelho.  The grapes were harvested mid-March with intense ripeness.  The grapes were almost raisin like.  After harvest the fruit is put through the crusher/de-stemmer and then processed through a mincer which really breaks open the berries, but is designed to not damage the seeds thus avoiding any bitter character from broken seed.  The juice at 22 beaume is allowed to slowly ferment and is then pressed off after about five days on skins and is fortified with the addition of SVR spirit.  The wine is now sitting at around 17.5% alcohol and is around 14 beaume of residual sugar.  It is lovely and rich.  The wine has been transferred to oak where it will now age for anywhere up to 20 years and perhaps longer.

Moving south to Manjimup where we commenced picking in early April. The first fruit harvested was a beautiful parcel of Pinot Noir. The finished wine shows lovely cherry hints, delicate tannin structure and a wonderful length of flavour. We utilise a number of clones in the Manjimup vineyard which we believe results in a wonderfully balanced and structured fruit driven Pinot style.

Next was out Cabernet Sauvignon. This year’s fruit was as good as we have seen for some time and the resulting wine exhibits great Cabernet character with intense black fruit character, fruit sweetness and ideal acid balance.

Last to be picked was out Shiraz. The vintage at Manjimup was difficult with some late rain so we expected some loss of this variety to botrytis. Despite this we were able to engage experienced pickers to sort through and only harvest the perfect bunches to be processed. Thankfully their diligence paid off and we were able to harvest enough by hand picking and the result is a wine with all the hallmarks of cool climate shiraz. Full bodied, hints of smoke, dark fruit and white pepper.

So with vintage over we turn our attention to refining the wines and take advantage of any spare time to catch up on some jobs around the winery and reflect over the hard work that has been put in since October last year.  We are looking forward to bottling some of the years wine later in the year, around November.

WA’s Great Graze is a new initiative to be held across our great state to promote our farmers and producers. Running from 10th April to 1st May, West Australians have the opportunity to participate in many events.

We at John Kosovich Wines are thrilled to be involved in three ways. Firstly at our cellar door you will be able to enjoy a glass or bottle of our wine whilst sampling some delicious West Australian produce. We will be offering this on the Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 3pm for the duration of the event. Grazing plates are $15 per person and wines start at $8 per glass or $24 per bottle. Bookings are essential, which can be done by emailing us at johnkosovichwines@westnet.comau. Please be aware that we do not cater for children.

We have also teamed up with fellow Swan Valley business Two Birds Fromagerie on Great Northern Highway. They will be offering a Flight of Delights. Four John Kosovich wines matched with some delicious West Australian cheese. You will be able to choose from a small flight for $22 or large for $29. We are very excited to be working with them for the first time. Contact Two Birds Fromagerie through their facebook page or by emailing enquiries@twobirdsfromagerie.com.au.

Our final collaboration is with Tall Timbers Manjimup. This venue is a great supporter of all things Southern Forests, particularly locally grown wines. Tall Timbers Grazing Manjimup with John Kosovich Wines event will run for the duration of the festival from 11am to 3pm. A grazing board for two people with a bottle of our Pemberton wine region Cabernet Sauvignon is $85. To book phone (08) 9777 2052 or email admin@talltimbersmanjimup.com.au

To view the full program, head to https://www.wagreatgraze.com.au/program

We are once again co-hosting a wine dinner with Chateau Guildford liquor store, to be held at Padbury’s Restaurant in Guildford. Winemaker Arch Kosovich will talk you through each of the five wines that will be poured on the night.

One of the wines served on the night is our 2013 Bottle Aged Reserve Chenin Blanc which was awarded the Alan Dinneen Memorial Trophy at the 2018 Singapore Airlines Swan Valley Wine Show. There is limited stock of this wine available and it can be ordered through Chateau Guildford on the evening along with the other wines served.

This is shaping up to be an enjoyable evening of fine wine and good food with Padbury’s chef creating a menu that will match beautifully with the wines. The four course meal with wine is $80 per person and bookings can be made direct with Padbury’s by phoning them on 9378 4484.

The 2020 Swan Valley Wine Show was held recently at Sandalford Winery. Due to the current Covid-19 restrictions the judging panel was made up entirely of very talented West Australian judges. More than 200 wines were assessed on the day and we are extremely pleased to have been awarded Best Chenin Blanc and Best Swan Valley Table Wine of Show for our 2015 Bottle Aged Reserve Chenin Blanc. This is the third consecutive year our aged chenins have received awards at the Swan Valley Wine Show.

This 2015 vintage won’t be released for another couple of years as we continue to cellar it so it can continue to improve with age. We have limited stock of the 2013 vintage for sale at the cellar door. If you would like to purchase some please call us at the winery on 9296 4356.

We have been working hard over the last couple of months hand pruning our Swan Valley vineyards. The work is now complete and soon we will begin the work at our Manjimup vineyard, which is located in the Pemberton wine region.

We have been fortunate to have some lovely sunny days pruning in the Swan and hopefully it will be the same when we venture down south.