Welcome to the last in our series of snippets straight from Chief Winemaker Tim Shand, revealing all the magic and momentum of our first certified organic vintage...

"A week is a long time in the vineyard and the vintage gods opted to unleash their wrath upon us. The rain flagged in last week’s diary set in for four days, 40mm in total! Our 'wait and see' approach quickly turned into a logistical exercise of picking the remaining Cabernet blocks as quickly as possible.

With an experienced crew in vineyard and winery, we were able to flex up and with some long shifts over the weekend we were all done by Monday. That left small hand picks of Grenache and Petit Verdot on Tuesday and before we knew it Vintage 2023 was in the bag.

As the dust settles, a reassuring mix of Cabernet batches emerges, picked before and after the rain. All are free of botrytis and tannins and flavour are ripe. Despite the tough end to the season, we’ve given ourselves the elements we need to put together some very fine Cabernets and blends.   

So this marks my last entry in the Vintage 2023 diary! It’s been a rewarding and enjoyable harvest with exciting wines from across our vineyard – a testament to our wonderful site and diligent team. Vintage in Margaret River is certainly a marathon not a sprint (maybe more accurately a marathon with a mad sprint at the end).

As always in the wine game, there are plenty of lingering ‘what if’s’ to get us thinking forward to the next vintage; pruning commences in a few months as we lay down the canes to see us through to February 2024. I’ll meet you back here then."