Kilbowie Wines | Food and drinks company

Kilbowie Wines

Phone: 0416264666

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23.01.2022 16 currawongs yesterday, amzing how they work in teams with the nets. Unfortunately they sometimes get caught in the nets - so tempting to stamp on them, but up close they are qiite magnificent so we let them go! Also it was obvious why we dont have starlings - watching the perrigine falcons catching them was "thrilling" - when they dive from above! Our 2016 riesling is at last commencing to show some maturity; to make good riesling you have watch for the phenols when pressing, was a bit slow with this one, but age will do the trick.Worthwhile looking at.

22.01.2022 Would make all the Tasmanian trout fisherman a bit "cheesed off" The cockatoo is after slugs in the silver wattle, they totally strip the bark and then dig holes in the trunk. The going price for the borers/slugs in the highland lakes is a bout $4.50 each Wonder if you could train them

19.01.2022 Being organic you cant spray weedicides so a considerable amount oftime is spent slashing, particulalry here in Tasmania as the grass really rows: these pictures were taken a couple of days ago The grapes are Merlot

19.01.2022 Just some more comments on our 2016 pinot noir and how we attempt to steer clear of "light" pinots The grapes came from trial bay about 30kms south of Hobart in the so called channel area. Ripeness was pretty well there with strawberry overtones and 13,5% v/v alcohol . We destem completely (green?) and do not crush, hence about 50% of the grapes are not broken;pumped to the fermenter (closed) in oversize hoses and oversize pump, hopefully retaining the grapes composition. Aft...er about 6 or 7 hours we add yeast: either a Rhone shiraz yeast or a German pinot one (AMH). The former brings brilliant colour wheras the latter complexity. AMH is certainly my favourite (very popular in Oregon), its lets the domestic yeast have a go for a few hours and slowly takes over - and ferments very slowly. Interestingly the people we make wine for prefer the Rhone yeast. We ferment up to about 30 degrees c ( colour again). Also an enzyme is added. When the ferment is on its last legs we put it through our membrane press - ver gently! The idea of pressing then is the the CO2 given off is a natural preservative, so no sulphites. When finished the wine is put into new French (usaully Vosges) barriques, heated to 20 degees C and a Malo culture added; again done to restict the use of SO2. The wine is racked once or twice over the next 15 months and the bottled.It is filtered at 1 micron.. Comparing to Burgundy is fascinating; they use resident yeast, but they have been throwing their wine residues in the vineyard for centuries hence making a yeast selection. One small "trend" in Burgundy and Oregon has been to use 200% new oak - MLF takes place in new oak barrels and the after a few months it is racked to more new barrels. Love to try it, but that would make a cost of about $10 per bottle just for wood! We do find that light filtering does improve the wine especially after about 3 years of maturation Burgundy always used local wood but that has changed. By the way Romanee Conti makes abut 450 doz per year! The last photo is Malbec and as usual for Malbec the fruit setting is all over the place, easy to see why is as virtually disappeared from Bordeaux: but when right does it make great wine!!!

18.01.2022 Must be something about an organic vineyard - the amount of nests, in fact on this merlot vine ther was two nests, the othe about 50 cm away. The vineyard normally has about 20 to 30 nests. I lke to think they are wren nests, but I guess they are silvereyes (unfortunately). Can any one recognise what they are?

17.01.2022 Currawongs are back! Must think it is Christmas with no nets. We haven't netted because the grapes aren't worth picking because of smoke taint: hasn't bothered these birds. They are amazing how they help each other. Even found one eating wasps - must clone it Even with nets one will lift the net off the ground allowing the others to get in

16.01.2022 The season goes on - no wasps at all then all of a sudden a "plague". Nest appears to be a considerable distance away, so using bates on the vineyard. If they dont work I doubt if we will have anything left to pick! They ( the grapes that is) look good too. The record so far is 16 currawongs swinging on the nets Today I opened a corner of the netting to get in and take some grape samples, a currawong followed me in!... Crushing about 3 tonnes of pinot noir tomorrow looks particularly good, using a rhone shiraz yeast, might use some vosgne oak See more

15.01.2022 Vintage is not going to happen, smoke taint but birds dont mind. Interestingly we never get one bird pest - starlings, but if you go about 800 metres away from the vineyard they start; probably the reason is the cliff behind the vineyard is home to a pair of peregrine falcons who seem to really appreciate starlings, and hence the starlings keep their distance; brilliant. In the evenings the air is full of bats - noticed that in McLaren vale they are doing research on bats in vineyards - we have very few insect pests!!! The other odd thing is that we have very few possums: the cliff is home to a few Devils, apparantly they will chase and catch possums on the ground

12.01.2022 In this week's Economist an article gives the current price of a dozen Romanee Conti at $us 25,000 per doz. Of course its a Pinot Noir - just a bit more expensive than our 2016 ($30 per bottle). I find it fascinating that Pinot Noir can vary so much!. I've been making it here in Tasmania for over 20 years, sourcing grapes from all over the state, and gosh do they vary. I must admit I've come to prefer a wine (grape) that when destemmed has a real strawberry character, will... be about !3.5%v/v alcohol and has a very dark colour.We mature it in new French barriques for 18 months! Hopefully they wont be drunk for at least 5 years. Unfortunately that is quite different from the current Australian style of lightness in colour and flavour, and not much wood - there are other grape vareties that are better at that. Whilst there are over 1000 clones of Pinot Noir in Burgundy and many do make a very light style, the clone(s) that Romanee use have very thick skins! Tomorrow I'll run down how ours is made and why. See more

12.01.2022 Getting two 2018 wines ready for bottling; a pinot noir and a merlot malbec. It is quite fascinating how different the wines are, chemically, physically etc. For example pinot noir has a berry colour value of 0.2 to about 1.4 mg per g, where as malbec can vary from 0.3 to 2.5 mg per g. And there are several publications stating there is a positive correlation between wine color and quality. Pinot noir is even stranger, black grape skins have up to 15 different anthcyanins (re...d coloured pigments) whereas Pinot noir has 5!!! We certainly use many techniques ( enzymes, fermentation temperature, etc) to extract the maximum colour. The 2018 has an extremely bright dark colour, not the current trend of nearly a rose. Our merlot malbec is always challenging; we always pick the two together (field blend?), and would you believe the relative ripeness between the two varies from year to year; 2018 Malbec won. Our Malbec is never above about !2.5% alcohol v/v, which by Australian standards is low, but it never shows any under ripe characteristics; in fact the flaovours call out for only new French oak to be used ( barriques as well) As a special this weekend as part of the open vineyard weekend we are trialling the 2017 Merlot Malbec, unlabelled for a really super price - after comments! See more

12.01.2022 wasps - should be fun picking ( if there is anything left) even tried stcky paper ( yellow is supposed to attract them)

12.01.2022 Nets set up for currawongs; the affect of the new organic weedicide: still on guard

11.01.2022 vintage on its way: interestingly in Tasmania cant afford to have one of anything - we have three backups pumps for the Zambelli shown ( 2 Zambellis and a Mono); if we have a failure it would take up to 2 weeks for a repair.

11.01.2022 That time of the year again; probably our last bottling 179 dozen of what has turned out to be truly magnificent Pinot Noir, 2018, from the channel area. A survey of the vineyard with the expert (Tam), for pruning. Will attempt to get merlot cuttings to expand the vineyard by 8 rows. Should allow more birds to nest; counted 18 nests. Incredibly dry year but one of the creeks is doing okay ( has some small trout and the occasional platypus

10.01.2022 A few pictures; of the press and some barrels full of 2018 pinot ( another 12 months?) The press we bought in ourselves from Germany (Stuttgart) and yes it cost more to freight it from Melbourne to Hobart than Stuttgart to Melbourne. Plus it was lost betwween Melbourne and here - took the 5 weeks to find it, and honestly they advised they wouldn't be charging storage! Did our first real analysis of the 2018 Malbec Merlot, it is very good, our previous best was 2008 this could be just as good - and yes couold be better (everyone says that though). It certainly will be 2 years in new French oak.

07.01.2022 Spring is (nearly here), silver wattles out, creeks back to normal; vineyard looking like it should be pruned! Again a very light year for frosts, normally don't prune until late September hoping no more frosts, but those days may have gone! I suppose someone has to do it Having been tasting some Cahors' Malbec Merlots (yes we got the idea from there), okay but light and stretched, maybe ours is better (and not $43)

06.01.2022 Smoke from the Huon Valley fire - we are about 40 klms away ( as the smoke flies). But most grapes in the valley ( including ours) would be at least berry size or at bunch closure; hence susceptible to smoke taint - could be a serious problem! Just heard that Langhorne Creek has lost about 50% of its grapes due to heat. Our average rainfall for January is about 47 mm, so far we have had 2.4 mm, average temperature is about 22 degrees, our average so far for this month is 25 degrees Climate change!!!!

06.01.2022 Its been quite a while between drinks - a few hip and knee operations and now an elbow. But a lot has happened to our wines and vineyard, so when I organise some photos ( just discovered that facebook doesnt upload Sony's play memories site any more). Also will like to have a discussion about Tamanian Pinots; commencing with our 2016 Back tomorrow

03.01.2022 Over the last few days we have been having a look at a collection of our older Muller Thurgau. A greatly misinterpreted grape; certainly in Germany it was stetched beyond all limits and made very sweet ( and unbalanced). The grape was developed in Germany (Gisenhiem) in the 1880's; first thought as a riesling / riesling cross then a riesling sylvaner cross, but now confirmed as a riesling/ madelaine royale cross. Madelaine was bred as a table grape in the 1840's with one of i...ts parents being a Pinot!. We have always added about 5% of other varieties such as rieling or gewurtz. Also Gisenheim has developed a yeast specially for Muller Thurgau - and it really works!. Ours are totally dry and with about 5 years+ age they develop along the same lines as an Australian riesling. As shown the 2007 actually got a bronze medal in the Hobart show so Muller Thurgau can be okay! Over this weekend we will have a few of the older vintages available for tasting and a few for sale. Hope we can share By the way the apparatus on the right of the picture is a eubilometer - measures alcohol, the designed hasnt changed for well over a 100 years!

02.01.2022 nets on 3 weeks early - caught the currawongs out, but they have now realised things are beginning to ripen; had 20 having a good look yesterday The malbec in particular is looking good, merlot a bit slower! Have a couple of vines of petit verdot - never have they ever coloured, this year they are actually showing a few tinges ( really should pull them out, but climate change!!) I must admit the 2016 kettering pinot noir is just commencing to mature into a very good wine.( only about 10 years to go)