2024 WRAP

Hey Everyone,

We have been really inconsistent over the last 6 weeks with keeping everyone up to date with what is happening on the farm. So much has happened over the last month or so. Firstly its 2025! Happy New Year and well it crept up so quickly that we can't believe we are already well into January.

Throughout December we were busy moving wires and checking for any weavil damage which completely destroyed many of our vines during 2023/24 growing season. We are pleased to say that with constant vigilance and spraying our Chinese Herbal medicine we were able to save the vines that were decimated last year and stave off any weavils at this stage. We do think that the climate conditions have favoured us this year, given that it is much cooler.

Though the cooler weather brings other potential threats such as fungal diseases and also ripening of the fruit. Ideally we need the fruit to ripen before the onset of rain and cold weather. Last year the fruit ripened so quickly because of the prolonged and extreme heat of last summer. 

Although we are novices in our wine making journey we love the continously learning. We also bring experience about climate from our life before wine in agriculture more broadly and also sustainabiity. 2024 fruit was severly impacted by the heat with sunburn and yeast levels disrupting the natural development of the fruit and then fermentation into wine. Natural wine making relies so much on the health of the fruit to be able to make good natural wine. As we do not rely on any process modifiers to enhance the tasting profiles of the wine. Everything is about the quality of the fruit.

Our vigilance and continuous learning, mapping and data recording will hopefully help us in the future to produce good quality fruit. As the year progresses we will talk more about how we incorporate data into the decisions we make and how and what we record.

Whilst the vineyard has been our primary focus we are continuously working on our farm. 2 years ago we started planting an Olive Grove from mature trees (25 year old) purchased from a farm close by. These have taken really well and hopefully we will be producing olive oil and preserved olives within 2 years. Around the Olive trees we have planted some really hardy Lavender, this is an evolving project as getting water to other parts of the property to be able to plant and establish gardens as been the biggest issue over the last year. Last years rainfall happened all within 2 months and our dam completely dried up! We have attempted to fix our dam however it is leaking - so water is a really big issue we want to tackle in 2025 to be able to establish the planned gardens and have our farm viable into the future.

Replanting and growing the native bushland around the creek line and dam is something we wanted to achieve last year but again the lack of rainfall really prevented the massive native tree planting that we wanted to do. This will remain a priority in 2025.

In December we officially opened our property as a boutique camp ground. The focus around this was to be able to share our farm, share knowledge, share wine and conversations with people who love nature. With 7 campsites available for people who are fully self contained. Our Campsites are open between September - April each year. Our Campsites are available to book via hipcamp.

Frankie our Bar-a-van is also now available to hire for small events/gatherings.

We have also initiated a change to our monthly Sounds. For us sharing our music was a little bit boring. So we have invited our Muses to share music with us and for you. Music is a big part of who we are and also how we create. Our next Magazine issue will feature one of our local muses Michelle Troop and some of the songs that she listens to.

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In March we hope to have a private event to release our 2nd Vintage of ISLA IN THE SUN. This is one of our favourite wines and it will be a celebration of vintage plus the end of Summer. 

Well thats it for now, stay tuned for Michelle's Sounds. 

Drink Wine, Listen to music, Wax lyrical

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