Vintage Journal ➺ Sven Joschke
The throes of vintage are wild and fleeting—those few months where everything hinges on the whims of weather and ripening fruit. It’s a season of instinct and urgency, early mornings and late nights. Amidst the flurry, we stole a moment of Sven's precious time to chat through all the action.
FRUIT FOR DAYS
"Fruit for days! After a challenging Barossa growing season, parcels are finally ripening to where we want them. Phenolic and aromatic ripeness came early, as expected in another warm, dry vintage. However, sugar ripeness lagged, the opposite to 2025, with intermittent heavy rains throughout the season. But we’re there now and bringing everything in!
Wines so far are looking outstanding. We’re seeing intense aromatics with medium level booze suiting our style well. There is botrytis out there however so we’ve had to be super careful with fruit intake and selection. Grenache seems to be suffering the most.
Amber wine looks particularly outstanding this year, notably Semillon. Skins handled the extended maceration very well with perfectly integrated tannins and intact skins after 6 weeks. We’ll be fleshing out our Amber this vintage with a small component of Chardonnay which is already heading in the right direction. Fortified projects always float our boat this time of the year too. Red Muskat fortified early and in American oak down for the long haul. Looks ready now which late on a Friday after a big week….is concerning."
After a challenging Barossan growing season, parcels are finally ripening up to where we want it. We’re there now and bringing everything in!
Early morning harvesting
“Our rosé is very labour intensive—made with seven parcels. Fruit gets processed and pressed straight away, then cold settled.”
Drew topping up our long term vermut solera project
NO SUCH THING AS A TYPICAL DAY
"A typical day, well there isn’t one! Particularly in a year like this one which has been very variable. In peak time though, we were starting at sunrise hand-picking, then processing fruit mid-morning. Because our main wine is very labour intensive—rosé with 7 different parcels—fruit has to be processed and pressed immediately, and then cold settled. Days are long with fruit intake at lunch, and then another at 10pm. In between processing, we were working on other ferments: pump overs, punchdowns, battonage. And of course, there's tasting to be done too.
Being in the Barossa, we don’t normally have to contend with botrytis and struggling sugar ripeness. I’ll admit it’s been a challenge managing this aspect.”
“Wines so far are looking outstanding. We’re seeing intense aromatics with medium level booze suiting our style well. ”
Dougie from "Wedded to the Weather" sampling our Das Klaus Shiraz ferment
“Our amber wine looks particularly outstanding this year, especially the Semillon.”
Sunset knock offs at the winery
Life in the Shed
"A little on the team at the moment—a few traditions seem to stick around year to year. The standard case of beer per “error” or “stuff up” applied again this year in the shed. A few noteworthy contributions from the wider crew (Sigurd Wine, Source of the Nile, Biscay Road, Wedded to the Weather, and ourselves). Highlights included bogging the forklift, accidentally filling the forklift with hydraulic oil instead of engine oil, a trailer coming off the ute—twice—fully loaded with fruit, someone knocking back cleanskin thinking it was water, and a few enthusiastic barrel ferments making their way to the drain.
By Friday afternoon, it’s tools down—big lunch, special bottles, and a chance to reset before it all kicks off again."
“By Friday afternoon, it’s tools down—big lunch, special bottles, and a chance to reset before it all kicks off again.”
Sangiovese dig out
