Vintage Has Begun!
It is official, Vintage for 2019 has begun. In true Barossa tradition, Chateau Tanunda has celebrated by ringing their historic 100 year old bell, to mark the beginning of vintage. The blessing of the grapes at Tabor Church also coincided with the beginning of vintage, which followed with a procession of robed Barons of Barossa.
In what looks to be a challenging season, due to the extreme heat, we got the heads up from the winemaking team at Dorrien Estate, to see how beginning of this vintage has been going.
1st Load for 2019
1st Load over the Weighbridge
Jetting out Reds for Pressure
Draining Reds - Shiraz
Shane Brassil the Cellar Manager at Dorrien has said:
With Baume’s moving quite quickly with this warmer weather, we have a very busy period over the coming weeks. This week we will have crushed 1258t of white grapes & 703t of reds, the red ferment space will be full by weeks end. The first load was Albarino from the Riverland and we are now operating 24/7 at Dorrien on 2 x 12 hour shifts.
Another great Barossa tradition is the Barossa Vintage Festival, in which Vinpac International and Cellarmasters are proud to be major sponsors. In 8 weeks the towns will come alive with almost 90 events to choose from, over a five-day period (April 24-28). The theme for this year’s festival is “Telling My Barossa Story”.
Vinpac International has been operating since 1975, so will be adopting a 70’s theme for the scarecrow competition. This will flow through to the Vintage Parade where “Vinny”, a fully converted Citroen 1972 H Van, will feature. “Vinny” will be located at the Vintage Lounge and Festival Hub at the Barossa Visitor Centre in Tanunda, from Wednesday through to the parade on the Saturday. So make sure you check it out.
The celebration will begin with our Scarecrow Making Day at the end of March where our people and their families from Vinpac International, VI Packaging, Dorrien and Prowine, will gather to make 70’s dressed scarecrows. We are joined by Barossa Enterprises for this special day, to help create scarecrows for their site as well. We can’t wait to share with you what we planning to create. Watch this space!
