Not long now.

A bit of recent heat has brought out some colour amongst the reds throughout the Pyrenees. Looks like about 3-4 weeks until we'll start picking, and the Vintage bandwagon will roll out.

A last bit of respite before the madness begins...

Wine for Haiti!

Boozemonkey.com.au is coordinating a wine haul to auction and raise money for the Haitians.

Donate now! The goal is 100k!

Our Mitchell Harris Future Leader!

Some of you may know already, but the latest news in the MH camp is all about our winemaker John Harris. Not only can he make a cracking drop of wine, he has been selected in an elite group that will participate in the Winemakers Federation of Australia's Future Leaders' program.

Only 15 are chosen Australia wide to attend 14 days of "wisdom sharing" throughout the country. The program involves successful industry leaders passing on little gems of knowledge to the "bright stars of the future" with the aim of creating tomorrow's leaders of the wine industry.

Great work JH!

...and we've hit the FRONT PAGE!

Alicia meeting up with Master Butcher John Harbour and Cheesemaker Nardia Baxter-Keene from Goldfields Farmhouse Cheese, before this Sunday's Taste Ballarat Food&Wine Expo.

Taste, Ballarat

A great weekend ahead with the Ballarat Wine Show, and the Taste, Ballarat exhibition on Sunday.

The Wine Show keeps getting better every year, with more producers, and better booze each time.

So this year, it's our first entry into our local show. Johnno is no stranger to the wine show scene, in both a judging and exhibiting role, but it might be interesting this year with his name on the label!

Anyhoo, it promises to be a great weekend, and for all of you in the 'Rat on Sunday, there will be the Taste Ballarat exhibition at the showgrounds. The best food and wine from around our district will be showcased from 10am - 4pm.

If I were you I'd be scoping out a bit of Johnny Harbour's wagyu beef, and perhaps a bit of Goldfields Cheese to go with our Mitchell Harris tasting...

TASTE BALLARAT

SUNDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2009. 10am - 4pm

BALLARAT SHOWGROUNDS

CRESWICK RD, BALLARAT

Mitchell Harris - finally available in Ballarat

It's been long enough coming, but finally Mitchell Harris Wines are available in our home town of Ballarat.

Drop into Campanas on the corner of Mair and Armstrong Sts, where all three of our wines are available, along with heaps of other top booze. (and some pretty wicked deli treats, too!)

Cheers Ballarat

H&M

Young Guns of Wine: What does it take to be a GUN?

Thanks to some much-appreciated tickets from Ed Charles at the Tomatom blog, we were lucky enough this Sunday to head along to the 3rd Young Guns of Wine awards at Carousel in Albert Park. The brainchild of Rory Kent, these awards celebrate fun, irreverence and originality in winemaking. This is the way our industry should be looking, despite what the high-trousered bow-tie brigade might think. Rory and the team put on a spectacular night, with some great wines from the YGOW nominees, Food and Desire nosh and some cool beats to eat and drink by.

The Awards were dished out by Nick Stock and Max Allen, and continued the cool theme. Adam Foster from Syrahmi was the People's Choice as voted at events throughout the weekend, then it was the enfant terrible of Aussie winemaking, Colin McBryde who took out "The Big Gun" as the YGOW.

Well deserved, the man with plenty of art all over his arms has created a brilliant arty brand in Some Young Punks that are well worth checking out. We indulged in the Monsters Attack riesling on the night, and a tight flinty little monster it is. He is also the winemaker at Adelina in Clare too.

Anyhoo, a top night, top food, top booze. And hopefully a glimpse of a cool future for Aussie wine.