The Birth of Bubbles...

Today marks the birth of our second vintage of Mitchell Harris 'SABRE' sparkling wine. The pickers have arrived to bring in our pinot noir today. We have found some beautiful fruit at a small vineyard near Kyneton in the Macedon region. Things for Vintage 2010 look fantastic at this stage: beautiful fruit, ripened gently by the generally mild conditions.

As our fruit comes in, it will be taken a short distance over to our contract winery near Romsey, where it will be pressed and processed. From there the pressings and cuvée make the trip back up to the Pyrenees, where we can then continue the fermentation, then the fun of blending with our chardonnay base.

We'll then tirage the wine into bottles, where it will spend approximately 3 years "on lees", gathering the rich taste and texture that we love to drink.

But today, it's just the first step on the voyage...

Winemakers: 24 hour party people... Songs for Vintage 2010.

Ah vintage... those heady few weeks present many opportunities to unleash the inner DJ, with some hard core down and dirty tunes to get you through a long night of well.. hard core down and dirty vintage work.

Your particular brand of aural stimulation may of course depend on your job in the vintage team, and the time of day.


I like to ease my way into the day (usually starting at about 4 am) with some mellow tunes. 


When the fruit comes rolling in and the jobs start piling up we can then crank it up a notch with some good rocking tracks. 


Don't forget those out in the vineyard in a tractor, or whizzing the forklift round the winery ... they need a good selection of driving tunes to keep the revs up.


After refueling at lunch, it’s time for a sing along tune to keep the spirits up. Some classic old school rock, think Stones or The Who, or some kicking Oz rock a-la You Am I to rock away the afternoon. 


By the late afternoon as you are clocking up 12 hours and the feet are heavy and the mind is losing focus... it’s time to start thinking about beer o’clock. Mix it up for the cocktail hour with some latin beats? 

For those on the night shift you need to keep the spirits up all night long. You need to warm up with some easy modern rock with a little twang such as Wilco, Weezer, or some old school Weddings. 


Then as the darkness sets in and the evening’s presses are emptied its time to rock it out until ‘dinner’ some time around midnight – 2am. 


After dinner its time for your power tunes and sing along tracks, to get you thru the wee hours before fading into some smooth grooves or even some classical gas as the sun rises to welcome in another day of grapes, ferments, near misses and the birth of potential wine greatness. 


Coopers pale ale for brekkie anyone?


Johnno's Job-Specific Top 5 (albums and tracks.)


Lab work : Needs some laid back alt-country...Wilco - Hotel Yankee Foxtrot
Marc Shovelling and Red Ferment punch downs : Wicked thumping beats...The Prodigy - Firestarter
Press Driving : Keeping the mood up for the team...Eels - Mr E’s Beautiful Blues 
Hose Dragging : Needs some good beats: Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
Blending : Needs some vintage wine rock ... Blur – Charmless Man - ‘…he knows his claret from his Beaujolais’


And Mitch's Top 5 picks for some new beats for the 2010 Vintage:


Weezer - (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To
Eels - Gone Man
Gin Club - Rain
Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros - Home
Ball Park Music -Sea Strangers (I Don't Really Know You)


What's your Top 5 for Vintage 2010?