22nd May 2020
Today is my last at the winery this autumn. I arrived to the sound of gently clinking bottles and my pulse raised a notch. We were due to start bottling in three days time, the day after I fly back to the chaos of Europe. But, our bottling truck was ready early and so it seems fitting that I end my time here by watching the 2019 Bannockburn Chardonnay leaving its home for the last 13 months and being secured into cases.
It’s the start of the next phase of its existence. Born a little over a year ago, it leaves its home and heads off into the world. Where will each bottle be opened? What will be happening there? Who will drink it? These are the sorts of questions that seem to be suddenly relevant; though in a previous vintage they may never have occurred to us.
Over the next week, Bannockburn, Cornish Point and Block 3 Pinot Noirs will follow it down that line. Then the season is done, time to settle down to the more mundane tasks of shipping and reflecting on the rollercoaster of the last three months.
The vineyards, of course, never really stop. Compost making is in full swing; goats come into kid, ready to deliver in the spring, and a new small Chardonnay project by Pipeclay Creek in Calvert Vineyard will keep the team busy in the cold months, as if 150,000 vines to prune wouldn’t!
Be safe out there.
Kia Kaha
Nigel
