HEASLIP WINES NEWSLETTER
Hello and welcome to our second newsletter. In this issue we say farewell to husband, father and grandfather Jeffrey Gordon Heaslip. Give updates on the 2005 & 2006 vintages along with the upcoming 2008 vintage. Plus some information on the year so far in regards to rainfall and a few other bits of interesting information.
This edition features:
A short reflection by Marie Heaslip:
Jeff passed away in April of this year after a long illness. Jeff and I were married for 41 years. Sadly Jeff didn't get to live at Clare or enjoy the fruit of our vines.
We have named our Shiraz block "Dayspring" in his memory, Dayspring being the name of the family property at Tintinara that Jeff managed after graduating from Roseworthy Agricultural College in 1954.
In 1962 he made a significant career change and trained as a primary school teacher. He then worked in state primary schools in country South Australia as a teacher and Principal until his retirement in 1993.
He loved his involvement
in education and was well respected in the many communities in which we lived.
Jeff may not have got to enjoy our wine, but we promise to have a glass or two in his memory whenever we get together. We know he would have approved of our venture.
REST IN PEACE JEFF.
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PRUNING - WINTER 2007
We adopted a different pruning technique this year to try and counter low bunch numbers and light foliage. The recent low bunch numbers have a lot to do with the minimal rainfall of recent years - 2006 was the driest winter in recorded history and this year isn't shaping up to be much better. But given we have dry grown, low yielding vines in an area that is really pushing ahead now with irrigated vines, we thought it worth trying a different technique to see if we can increase the bunch count a bit and help protect the ripening bunches from late summer sunburn due to the light foliage.
So, this year we experimented with a technique similar to the machine pruned style called 'minimal pruning'. This involves basically moving through the vines and cutting all spurs (last year's growth) back to two to three buds but not completely removing any of these spurs at all. This means there can be thirty to forty-odd spurs per vine, compared to the fifteen that are left after a standard prune. Fairly radical!
The reason for using this technique on large properties is to save pruning costs. After an initial imbalance of excessive foliage, a few years of minimal pruning results show a return to good foliage/fruit balance. In our case we don't expect any foliage 'blowouts' due to no irrigation. The major concern for us is that with another dry year the vines won't be able to handle the extra foliage at all, and either not produce fruit, drop it at an early stage, or not be able to carry it right through to harvest.
Various factors will determine this - total winter rain, follow-up spring and summer rain, overall spring and summer temperatures and weed competition. We can't really go any worse than zero fruit as we did in 2006, so there is only one direction to go!
RAINFALL
The year so far has seen a very mixed bag of monthly rainfalls. After the very dry 2006 winter an above-average season was badly needed this year. With a promising start to the year we have come to the end of another below-average winter. June produced 31 mm, July 55 mm and August 20 mm, which is a total of 106 mm, well below the average winter rainfall of 209 mm.
There were some reasonably significant falls prior to winter to help compensate - 97 mm in January, 62 mm in March, 90 mm in April and 25 mm in May.
Without good follow-up rains in spring and summer we could be in a bit of trouble again this year. Not being able to produce a crop two tears running will be tragic, but such are the vagaries of non - irrigated farming.
MULCH
We mulched the Shiraz in March this year with barley straw. We had it applied extra thick and hope this will help moisture protection post - winter. One thing it will definitely do is help with weed control. It will totally eliminate any weeding needing to be done under the vines.
We have started to get a lot of cape tulip coming up in the blocks over the last two years, and have started a spray program to try and eliminate this.
Here are some notes I found while surfing for wine sites on the net. They may help all of us that are still learning the interesting, continually expanding, and sometimes crazy world of wine terminology!
This stuff is pretty straightforward. No match for the likes of wine writer Phillip White who once described a wine as having a whiff of road kill about it! I kid you not!!
This excerpt was taken from the New Zealand website www.winefairy.co.nz
A Bluffer's Guide To Wine Talk
While drinking wine is easy, talking about it isn't always as straightforward; particularly when all sorts of strange references to butter, herbs, minerals and flowers come out.
Wine tasting has a lot to do with sensory recollections – the aroma or taste reminds you of something else you've smelt or tasted before – whether it's your grandmother's preserved plums, the marmalade you have on your toast in the morning or the briny smell of a beach at low tide.
While sometimes it would be nice if everyone just agreed that wine tastes like wine and shuts up and drinks it, if you enjoy drinking wine it's nice to be able to articulate what it is you like so much about it.
The following are a few wine-related phrases and their meanings to get you on your way.
Overall Impressions
Fruit character - Characteristics of a wine that are derived from the grape, such as aroma, flavour, tannin and acidity.
Acidity - Acidity is like the ‘pucker level' of a wine, or how much it makes you smack your lips. This can add that zesty or crisp aspect to a wine, but if too acidic can make the wine appear quite tart or sour.
Balance - This is how the alcohol level, acidity, residual sugar and tannin of a wine bind together and whether or not the balance between all these factors is good. In a well-balanced wine no one aspect should overwhelm the others.
Body - This describes the ‘weight' of the wine in your mouth and is related to alcohol levels and fruit extract.
Length - This is the sustained impression of the wine across the palate. When someone says a wine has ‘good length' they are saying the wine leaves a lasting impression on their palate.
Finish - The final impression a wine leaves after you have swallowed it.
Generic Descriptors
Fruity - All wine is fruity, in the sense that it's made from grapes, but wine has aromas of fruit other than grapes. Some people just sense a general fruity quality; others can identify more specific aromas, such as peach, apple or pear and some can get even more specific – such as golden queen peach, granny smith apple, nashi pear… Very impressive.
Aromatic - Fruity and floral.
Astringent - A harsh, dry sensation in the mouth caused by high tannin or phenolic levels.
Tannin - This is predominantly a red wine thing. Tannin adds to the texture of wine and gives you that furry feeling on your teeth the same way a cup of stewed tea does. When there's a lot of tannin in a wine it can make your mouth feel very dry. People tend to use the word ‘phenolic' to describe astringency in white wines and the word ‘tannic' to describe astringency in red wines.
Phenolic - A natural compound in grape skins and seeds. It can cause wine to taste bitter and harsh. These compounds are present in all wine in small amounts, but more so with red wine because of the extended contact with skins and seeds
Spicy - This describes wine displaying aromas and flavours reminiscent of aromatic spices.
Crisp - A wine that feels clean and zingy in the mouth, usually from higher acidity.
Creamy - This is often used to describe Chardonnay, as it is a character of a wine that has undergone malo lactic fermentation (a secondary fermentation). It is that richness about it and that feeling that, like cream, if you have too much of it you may have a heart attack.
Buttery - A butter-like flavour to the wine again created by malo lactic fermentation or yeast contact.
Oakey - This is the toasty, smokey or vanilla smells and flavours that come from aging the wine in oak barrels after fermentation. Sometimes on the back labels of wine you will see the wine has been aged in French or American oak barrels, or both.
In terms of the difference - a barrel is not just a barrel. Barrels made from French oak are generally thought to have more subtle wood flavours than those made from American oak.
Smokey - Aromas that suggest smoke or smoked wood, which can come from barrel aging. The barrels are fired when they are made and this can be reflected in the flavour of the wine.
Minerally - Aromas or flavours that suggest minerals. Like water in different regions or from a well/bore can taste different, almost harder and richer in lime - so too can wine, which reflects the geographical region it is from.
Nutty - Smells or tastes like nuts and has that same rich creaminess.
Green - An acid taste generally found in wines made from grapes that have not ripened enough.
Oxidized - Wine changed by contact with air, usually producing undesirable colour or flavours and can have the effect of making the wine appear older than it is (not in a good way).
Now down to the important business of trying to sell our wine! We still have some cases left of the 2005 vintage, so if you are running low or still haven't ordered feel free to click on the link below.
The Shiraz and blend are drinking beautifully now and the Cabernet Sauvignon could be a very special wine in a few years time. These wines have some longevity so will increase in price a bit every year.
'STOP PRESS' - We have just sold a large consignment of Shiraz to a prominent South Australian businessman (think "who ate all the pies").
We now have limited Shiraz supplies. There are still cartons of the blend and Cabernet Sauvignon plus a few pre-packed mixed dozen cartons.
Our 2006 wines are progressing nicely under the guidance of Neil Paulett of Paulett Wines. This wine will be bottled around November - December this year and be ready for release early 2008. It will be a different style to the 2005 vintage and should compliment it well. Visit Heaslip Wines Online Store!
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You will find some other great information and photos on the website:
www.heaslipwines.com.au
Check it out and order some wine!
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We at Heaslip Wines hope you all enjoy the rest of 2007. The next newsletter should be in your mailbox December this year. We will update you on vine progress, rainfall, our spray program for this season and any pest and disease issues, as well as a few family recipes.
We hope the rain tumbles down wherever it is needed and that the number of wars going on in the world decreases by a lot. Take care and enjoy drinking wine!
THE HEASLIP CLAN
© Copyright 2007
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