Vintage 2011...Bringing in the 2011 Cabernet

Getting toward the end of our long, late, cool vintage of 2011 and it's time to head up into the Moonambel Hills again for a look at how the 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon is travelling.

Some brilliant work in the vineyard throughout the growing season has kept the floods and the rot at bay, and we've got some gorgeous big black bunches hanging there, ready for picking.

Always hard of course to judge what this season's weather will do over the next week or so, so it's time to work out whether to take the leap and start picking.

Johnno checks the sugar content on the refractometer, basically a prism that reacts differently according to the sugar content of the sample inside it. With the Cabernet at 12.5 Baumé, and the weather ahead looking let's say, a little dodgy... 

It's time to get in the fruit, about 7 tonnes, and start the fermentation for our 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Picking the Pinot... Vintage 2011 gets underway

After our 2011 summer of discontent, it's finally come time to start on Vintage 2011! First off the rank is our sparkling fruit, which, after surviving a season of floods and humidity, has benefited from a nice slow ripening period.

The (finally) ripe bunches of Pinot Noir.

As you can see, our Macedon Pinot Noir fruit looks terrific, thanks to some hard work in the vineyard, nestled in the northern foothills of the Macedon Ranges.

Mitchell Harris gathers its Pinot Noir near Kyneton in the north of the Macedon Ranges.

Pressed and processed, it's then back up to the Pyrenees for fermentation and to have Johnno work his magic on it over the next few months.

John Harris surveying the 2011 crop

At that stage, the Pinot will be blended with our Chardonnay fruit, and tiraged into bottle to spend the next three or more years on lees, after which it can be disgorged to make our "Sabre by Mitchell Harris" sparkling.

Those with less patience will see the Pinot Noir pressings blended with our Pyrenees Sangiovese to create our second Rosé release, later in 2011.

Mitchell Harris Cabernet 2010 - a work in progress...

A few snaps from this week, showing that winemaking isn't all sitting on a verandah watching the sun set over the vineyard.

The 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon in our open-top fermenters.

If you look closely you can probably even see Johnno breaking a sweat in some of these shots!

Things look promising for a top vintage 2010...