Wine production shifts up a gear & the Boutique Wine Show

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A month or so ago, I put out the feelers to track down more contacts to get supplies of wine grapes for the coming harvest season. I have found it is not hard to get lots of advice and some good contacts from any number of wine making enthusiasts (who are mostly of Italian or Macedonian decent). So, based on the information I was given, I started making some calls and now I have a feeling my plans to “make a few bottles” is possibly growing a little beyond my expectations.

"Joe the Italian", was the contact I was given to try and get some white grapes, I made one call to his mobile asking if he could get me a “few boxes” and he called back three days later asking “Ok mate the grapes are ready - how many truck loads was it you said you wanted?”. I got that sorted out I think, although I am now very worried he may deliver more grapes than I know what to do with!

So, to balance things out I chased up a contact for some red grapes. So, it looks like the cabernet sauvignon will come from "Rod the Rocker" in exchange for all of the cherry grappa I made and bottled over Christmas. I couldn't drink it anyway, I think the recipe I used for this was far better suited to making oven cleaner or engine degreaser, but Rod seemed to like it!

Then, I get a call from "Rod the Rocker" who tells me he has organised with a friend to pull up next to the mechanical harvester and they will fill a trailer with about one tonne of grapes!!! So, I did some quick calculations after Rod's call and try to picture the amount of grapes I may have to process. I began to panic just a little. After all how was I going to crush and press them?

I had been looking around at the price of this equipment and thought I would have to wait until something second hand came along at a good price. Luckily, on the same day I was put in contact with "Miklós the Hungarian" who had decided he no longer wanted his wine press and I snapped it up at a bargain price. Miklós gave me some very straight forward instructions on the art of pressing grapes - "You putta the grapes inna up here and the juice she comsa outa here, ok mate. Good, now wot issa this cherry stuff for the car engine you have?".

The bottles are being supplied by "Sam the Greek" in exchange for most of the plum grappa I made. He placed an order for any more of this I make stating that "its great mate, my wife is thinking I am on a fruit juice diet. So make sure you bottle it all like this one in the fruit juice bottles ok".

Quality control and taste testing comes courtesy of "mon petit chou - Lorenza". Her comments on the cherry grappa were “Arrrrhhh, that just took the enamel off my teeth!” and her first impression of the plum grappa was “don’t ever leave that stuff near a naked flame!”.

So, I think we have everything sorted and ready to go. I think you can guess what my spare time will be spent doing over the next month!

NSW INLAND FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL

To get some further inspiration for our wine, we attended the NSW Inland Food & Wine Festival on the weekend. It was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Lorenza and I traveled in early and spent some time looking around the Rocks (oldest part of Sydney) and Circular Quay. Sydney Harbour is a very unique place and in a lot of ways defines what Sydney (and Australia) is all about - water, sunshine, and getting out and enjoying life!

The food and wine festival was interesting. We tasted wine from areas such as Mudgee, Young, Cowra and Orange. Not to mention, sampling lots of interesting olive oil, pesto, smoked food products, etc. It was organized by the Boutique Wine Association click here for their website

The best thing was being able to talk to some small scale wineries and winemakers and get some ideas. The best wine I tasted was the Riesling produced by the Mount Panorama winery at Bathurst, and a late harvest Verdehlo from Cowra.

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Photos

Cab Sav
Where our grapes are ripening for us!

Comments

[rinsessa]

Hi!
We will live in Kogarah 3months. :) and we are makeing our practical training in Concord Hospital.. So I don't know are we tourist or not.. and I have lived in Sydney 2years ago... ;)

[rinsessa]

Concord Hospital
Which ward she is working at? We are now in recovery but then we will go some other wards.. :)