Vinelea Wines in Beechworth, Victoria | Winery/Vineyard

Vinelea Wines

Locality: Beechworth, Victoria

Phone: +61 427 928 511

Address: 333 Malakoff Rd, 3747 Beechworth, VIC, Australia

Website: http://www.vinelea.com.au

Likes: 131

Add/Update information

Reviews

Tags

• Winery/Vineyard

25.01.2022 Tasting our first commercial estate wine tonight. 2013 Shiraz. Travelling well, an opulent Northern Rhone style Shiraz. Absolutely delicious, opaque, some mellowing with it's 5 years in bottle. Many years ahead of this one.

24.01.2022 Winter in the vineyard, pruning is well underway. The winter sky can be beautiful.

22.01.2022 And here are the little oats and vetch plants, about 100mm tall, and ready for winter. It's important to get the plants growing before winter so that they are ready to sprint away in the first warm weather at the end of September. We've had a good germination rate this year thanks to excellent rains and warm soil, but we've also had good grass and weed germination too, cape weed, sheep sorrel and rye grass, as well as the native grasses. Pruning will start in a few weeks, but in the mean time we are having a big clean up of our creek reserve, removing a lot fallen branches and weeds (2nd photo).

20.01.2022 At 'The Bentley' Sydney

18.01.2022 I’m not a great one for the pretentious side of winemaking, and it’s hard to discuss some concepts without descending into the world of the ‘wine wanker’. But there’s a school of thought that I believe has serious merit, that is the concept of the Winegrower. I recently read this quote from a talk given by the British wine writer Andrew Jefford When you talk to those who have crafted wine the longest, and whose work involves at least the supervision of vineyards if not ac...tually viticulture itself, almost all of them prefer the term ‘winegrower’ to that of ‘winemaker’. The critical decisions affecting the personality and quality of the wine, they feel, are those taken in the vineyard, and they’ll make every effort to be as close to the vineyard as possible. Custodianship and renewal are indeed ideals cherished by winegrowers. The wine world is full of ‘the cult of the winemaker’ and the viticulturist comes a very long second in the industry’s collective mind. The winemaker is the wizard who concocts vinous nectar from the raw grapes. The viticulturist is just seen as a farmer. It’s a convenient media image, and winemakers tend to like the spotlight, but it’s so wrong. You can salvage mediocre wine from poor grapes by high intervention winemaking, but you can never make fine wine without high quality, balanced, evenly ripe, disease free fruit. The great winegrowers have made a significant investment in the vineyard, matching rootstock to soil and climate, selecting clones for the style of wine, building trellis that fits the location, varieties and desired yield, working their soil and/or maintaining inter-row pasture, and managing the yearly cycle of pruning, thinning, training, spraying, and harvest. And learning, ever learning. You have to love the vines yes, I know that’s a bit ‘wet’ for modern taste, but it’s true. High intervention winemaking is industrial chemistry by another name. It produces reliable, predictable, acceptable, but bland results; and if you don’t start with quality ingredients no amount of fiddling will produce haute cuisine or rather, fine wine. By world standards the entire Australian wine industry is still in its infancy, and we have a lot to learn. The climate is changing, rainfall is always variable in a country like Australia, and you really have to be on top of your game to produce quality grapes. We should be adopting a stewardship approach to our farming, food and wine production, for the sake of future generations, the environment, and in the interest of improving the quality and sustainability of the wine industry. We in the industry should all be winegrowers.

15.01.2022 No vintage for 2020 at Vinelea. Unfortunately the harsh season has taken its toll on our grapes, and we decided to not pick and process them this year. We had a very dry spring, the dams did not fill with water, an extremely hot December and January followed and consequently the grapes did not form properly. The smoke from the Mt Buffalo fires were really the last nail in the coffin. Yes, it’s depressing, mainly because of the thousands of hours work in the vineyard that le...Continue reading

13.01.2022 Next step in the winter work - following excellent rain this week its time to prepare the soil for the seed. First we do a single pass with the tyne cultivator, which digs down deeply into the soil, breaking up any compaction and allowing future rain to get deep into the sub soil. This is done at a slow pace so that it gently breaks the soil rather than sending it flying everywhere. Next, we do 2 or 3 passes with the disc cultivator, which turns the sod into the soil and brea...ks the soil into smaller clods, making it easier for the new seed to take root. Our soil has improved dramatically over the years, as can be seen by the water holding capacity, the different varieties of grasses & legumes that grow, and also the way it forms large consolidated clumps. It started as large grained sandy soil, now it's more sandy loam. After the summer from hell, autumn has come early and we've had some rain. Lets hope the trend continues. See more

11.01.2022 OK, the final post for sowing the winter cover crop. Today I spread the seed using a simple but effective seed broadcaster, then used a harrow to cover over the seed. It's not as elegant or effective as using a proper sod sower machine, but I can't afford the luxury of one that would be used for just a couple of hours every year. It's the earliest I've ever had the crop sown, due mostly to no vintage this year. So that's the final pass of the cover crop rows until it's mowed in September. Lets hope for rain this winter! I'll post some pictures once the seeds germinate. Have a wonderful Easter every one, and stay safe. :)

11.01.2022 We are enjoying a rare mild and wet spring, and while the nights are a wee bit cooler than we would like, and the risk of frost persists, it is perfect growing weather, and the young vines in particular are stretching their roots and sending shoot tips toward the sun. These are the years when the vines add bulk to their stems and major roots, and build more storage to get them through stressful times and produce a more regular and consistent crop. They also develop stronger... and thicker canes that are more resilient to wind, animal and insect damage. There are some negatives, high vigour means a lot of labour to contain vines in the trellis, and the risk of the common mildew diseases is higher, but it can be managed with a careful spray program. But overall, mild wet springs are a real blessing. This year the chardonnay and pinot, both burgundy varieties, have shot away early and have the most even canes we've seen here at Vinelea. I'm keen to think that this is the result of the new pruning techniques I've implemented over the last 3 years (look up poussard pruning if you're interested), but as the last 2 growth seasons were poor due to dry weather it's hard to draw a conclusion just yet. Flowering is very close to starting here, so we keep a close eye on the weather and try and get all of the shoot thinning complete before it starts. Good weather around flowering can mean a good crop set and healthy vintage. It's a real privilege to have the farm as well as the vineyard, and to have had space to work in while city people have endured the endless isolation and lock down, we feel that despite the loss of the 2020 vintage that some good has come of the year. Hope springs eternal when you work with the land and nature, and a beautiful cloudy day or just seeing our resident echidna can put a smile on your face. Pictured is a 2nd year P58 chardonnay vine, growing beautifully after a struggle to just survive last year. See more

10.01.2022 3 favourite barrels, empty and being nursed through until 2021

09.01.2022 It's always a pleasure to get a good review in GT Wine magazine :)

08.01.2022 Now more than ever is the time to support our food and wine producers directly. From speaking to my friends in the wine industry most of us have seen sales plummet, due to restaurants and pubs closing, and debt we are owed is looking at risk. We hear of wine sales spiking - but that is just through the supermarket chains, and they predominantly only have a handful of large suppliers - that label you see on their shelves that looks like a cute little family winery? - it's a b...rand invented and managed by a marketing team in the big smoke, and comes from a 200,000 litre tank. The margin from its sales go to running a corporation and paying shareholder, not to the small family business image they use to sell the wine. The supermarkets and liquor industry giants won't go under - but your favorite small winemaker might. The same goes for cheese, bread and indeed any artisan scale maker. So if you can, look up your favorite brands, email them to see how they are going and buy from them rather than the big boys. Thanks for reading :) Cheers, Stuart @ Vinelea Beechworth. See more

07.01.2022 Ribbons of green and brown. A few warm days, good soil moisture, and the vineyard has burst into life.

04.01.2022 Final till, it's worked up beautifully this year. Seeds go out tomorrow.

04.01.2022 End of pruning, 2020. As you can see, my pruning tools have moved into the 21st century! My good friend, talented winemaker and Stanley pioneer Adrian Kearton bought a pair of electronic secateurs and gave me a try - wow, no more sore hands or wrist, they are amazing. And once you get use to them, they are fast to use. And before anyone asks, yes I still have all 10 fingers. Now to start getting ready for spring!

01.01.2022 The seed for the winter vineyard cover crop was delivered today, so I've been mixing it together ready to sow. It's a blend of hay oats - which add organic matter and break up the soil - and vetch, which is a legume and adds N to the soil. We need more rain before I can plough, but we also need to get the seed sown while there is still warmth in the ground so that it grows before the freezing cold of winter. We are already having some nights under 10 degrees.