Loire Valley 1998.  Claude Bourguignon 2018.

We spend a lot of time looking across and above our vineyards. We admire the easily evident beauty of ordered vines embellishing the landscape. It’s very infrequent, and certainly not Instagram worthy, to focus below the surface and below the microscope.

In 1998 I spent my usual few weeks roaming the vineyards and cellars of Burgundy before spending one week following the Loire from Nevers to the coast. Much of my trip was visiting producers for importer Paul de Burgh-Day (which is now Robert Walters’ Bibendum Wine Co) where the focus was (and remains) on the finest vignerons with a bent for promoting soil life and low input vinification. Burgundy was its usual inspiring self for wines and conversations of terroir and typicity however it was in the Loire that I felt the dynamic stirring for a lowering of the vision. It was in the Loire that I felt a gathering momentum for seeing and feeling the earth. It shook me up and put us on a patient and determined path to improvement.

A few weekends ago I participated in a wonderful wine event in Daylesford conceived and organised by Jenny Latta. As is the way, my attendance was for work, which happens to be my pleasure, and the aptly titled event ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ was indeed a pleasure to be included in. Having vinously grown […]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]To follow some Bindi news please see @bindiwines on Instagram. The season is now well underway and has required quite a deal of patience.  The Spring is nearly over yet we have hardly had a warm day and the vines are running a course of lateness that will perhaps see harvest in mid April.  No […]

[vc_row full_width=”” parallax=”” parallax_image=”” full_width_content=”” bg_color=”” bg_position=”tl” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” bg_cover=”” parallax_type=”tb” parallax_speed=”1″ padding=”” side_padding=”” margin_bottom=”” css_animation=”” bg_video_mp4=”” bg_video_ogv=”” bg_video_webm=”” bg_video_overlay=”” bg_video_position=”top” bg_video_parallax=”none”][vc_column width=”1/1″ a13_fa_icon=”” icon_position=”left”][vc_column_text] The season of 2015-16 is the season of early.  Early Flowering, early fruit set, early veraison and, of course, early harvest.  All early by the calendar, but the whole season seemed […]

The 2015-16 season has commenced and what an unusual beginning it has been.  From the coldest, harshest winter in 20 years with just enough rain to achieve good soil moisture we have jumped straight into an exceptionally warm, dry Spring.  Sadly, the promising rains of mid winter have seized up and things are drying out […]

The only sense of extreme experienced at this point the 2014/15 growing season is that it has been extremely mild.  Which in some ways makes it seem odd that harvest across Victoria is running very early however the whole season has tracked that way and, in fact, the lack of extreme heat has seen the […]