Yabby Lake and Heathcote Estate 2014

So some of you may not know but I have escaped the cold of the Northern hemisphere for the warm days of sunny Heathcote in Victoria, Australia. I figured why not keep you up to date with what’s happening down here. I am working for a company called Yabby Lake, which is headed up by Tom Carson, a winemaker who I worked for in 2008 at another winery. Yabby Lake consists of two distinct brands; Yabby Lake is producing Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir from the cooler climate of the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne, and Heathcote Estate is producing Shiraz and Grenache from the much warmer Heathcote region, 1,5 hours north of Melbourne. Fruit from both vineyards is processed in one winery located on the Heathcote vineyard.

To date we have done the majority of the Pinot Gris and made a start on the Pinot Noir. We had one small parcel of Chardonnay at the start of the week and have begun on the Heathcote Shiraz. Several heat waves over verasion has slowed the progress of the Shiraz, and resulted in what looks like a compact hectic vintage. It’s going to be non stop from here, it’s about to get crazy.