Bordeaux calling….ready to harvest our passion!

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Old Merlot vine mid season – beautiful 2012 wine?

Just a quick blog this week. The excitement is increasing. The bags are out again, packing has begun as I prepare to head to beautiful Cardan Bordeaux France for Harvest 2012. I can’t wait to be there now and I can’t wait to bring you our readers the pictures before and during harvest.

The question I am continually asked is “will 2012 be good?” which kindly reflects genuine interest … but masks the complexity of the daily challenge of working with mother nature. If all goes well through the next 2 to 3 weeks, we will have a better idea. As the wine goes into barrique in January, we will be closer again to giving an anwer! What I can tell you is that, if the fruit and wine is as good as the level of skill, dedication and hard work of our vineyard team, then we will achieve a great result! Season 2012 has been a challenge, particularly through spring into early summer as the cold wet conditions proved ideal for mildew. We successfully managed that, we have tackled the lack of homogeneity with the fruit setting / ripening and now we are preparing for the harvest.

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Looking south over the tiny Hourcat Centre parcel of 55yo Merlots

Vintage 2012 will be different at Paradise Rescued. We have re-modelled the winery based on our experiences in 2011 and through working with similar “micro” organic / biodynamic producers in France and Australia. This will also be the first harvest that we use a final “triage” hand sorting station prior to crushing / de-stemming. Yields may be lower than previous years but our priority is always quality – for us 1 bottle of great wine is always better than 10 bottles of average grog. That’s part of our values, that’s brand Paradise Rescued.

And it will hopefully be our first real harvest from the recovered “old vine” Merlot block of Hourcat Centre. We hope we will have enough wine for one barrique. Pictures, stories and the amazing people who make this all happen will be coming to you soon. Watch for the updates here, on Facebook and Twitter – follow hashtag #Harvest 2012….. harvest the passion![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]