Vintage is here! – report from the winery

Vintage is here! Amazing that it has already been a year since the last, but here we are, ready and waiting for the onslaught of grapes! There is a buzz of activity in the vineyards and winery as we prepare for picking, crushing, fermenting, pressing, tasting, sampling, measuring, and all the many and varied jobs involved in vintage. A trickle of fruit is arriving everyday, a nice slow start to what will undoubtedly become a torrent at the peak of vintage. This year the growing season has been ideal, with relatively moderate temperatures, lots of sunshine, and cool nights, so we anticipate the floral, intense fruit flavours you love in our Cortes de Cima wines will be in full glory in 2008 wines! But a lot of work in the meantime is required from our winery and vineyard team to capture the fruit at just the right time, and to guide the yeast to work their magic, converting all the grape sugar to alcohol, while preserving the delicious flavours.

As is the pioneering tradition at Cortes de Cima, we are also testing the boundaries and performing lots of little trials in the nicknamed `nursery` winery. This involves making small batches of wine using different techniques that we are interested in trying out on our fruit. One of the really exciting thing about

winemaking is that although it is a science, it is also a mysterious science that can often prove all the scientific books wrong! So the best way to investigate a new technique or idea is to just DO it…

So stay tuned for updates, and spare a thought (or even better raise a glass of Chaminé!) for our coffee guzzling team working around the clock to deliver you the best from 2008.