Cheers Mr Halliday! - The SABRE review...

Thankyou Mr Halliday. A ripper review for our Sabre by MH in the latest Wine Companion mag. 95 points! Email info@mitchellharris.com.au if you would like to get your hands on some yourself.

Atop the Sabre Tanker Truck: another Vintage 2012 panorama

Today we brought our Chardonnay base from the Macedon Ranges up to our Pyrenees winery where it will embark on a journey toward becoming our Sabre sparkling.
The Pinot base is already fermenting well, and it looks like a good vintage for sparkling wines this year...

Click on the image for a closer look....

Mitchell Harris Wines at Spring Graze Ballarat

A few pictures from a great night at Lydiard Wine Bar this week. Spring Graze was a satellite event of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and showcased the best of fresh spring produce along with the range of Mitchell Harris wines.

We hand-disgorged a dozen bottles of our new sparkling, Sabre, which was served with fresh plump oysters. The dry, aperitif style was a brilliant match for this seafood canapé.

A Thai salad of spanner crab showed off chef Damien Jones' heritage in Thai cuisine brilliantly, and was matched with our 2011 Sauvignon Blanc Fumé, and our 2011 Rosé.

Through the night we patched in Johnno from his wine-show judging in Canberra, to introduce the sneak preview of Sabre. A great way to bring him in as a part of the evening, but obviously he would have preferred to indulge....

An incredible main of a rare rolled roast of Goldfields Spring Lamb was some of the best lamb I've ever tasted, and a brilliant centrepiece with our reds, 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2009 Shiraz.

And a sublime way to finish the night was a dessert of blue cheese, pear and apple, matched with the fruit richness of our Special Release Muscat.

Make sure if you get a chance to drop into Lydiard Wine Bar in Ballarat

Special thanks to Alicia's sister Sally for the gorgeous images...

 www.sallymckay.com.au 

SABRE by Mitchell Harris...the sneak preview!

With our newest sparkling release, Sabre by Mitchell Harris, only weeks from fruition, we decided it was time to knock the top off one. Johnno did the honours, with, you guessed it... a Sabre!

Stay tuned...won't be long now!!!

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.

Happy New 2011!

A quick note to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR from the Mitchell Harris Crew.

Thanks for a terrific year in 2010, a year where:

• We were lucky to have a brilliant vintage in the Pyrenees, truly one to remember for our red wine. 
• We discovered a great blend of fruit zing and savoury tannins in our 2010 Pinot Noir/Sangiovese Rosé.
• The addition of a terrific aged Muscat to the Mitchell Harris Wines portfolio
• Mitchell Harris Wines moved into even more of Melbourne and Victoria's best restaurants and bars.
• We continued to gain some great reviews in the press and blogs, and achieved James Halliday's Wine Companion 5-star status in only our second year.

The fun won't stop this year, with plans ahead for:

• A promising Pyrenees vintage, with our fruit in the Moonambel Hills surviving our spring deluges without wet feet or any other problems.
• Mitchell Harris Footy Tipping, bigger and better than ever!
• Sabre by Mitchell Harris, the release of our long-awaited sparkling wine.
• Plenty of events and great drinking ahead.

For now, Cheers to you all , and happy drinking!