Quick Harvest for Marlborough

vineyards at yealands




It seems the Harvest is over before it began. The vines are changing colors and the leaves are falling. Its full blown Autumn down here now. All of the grapes on Yealands 1000 Hectares have been in for about 7 or 8 days now, with the last being harvested around the 23rdish of April. Yealands is located in the Awatere Valley, which is a cooler area of Marlborough which tends to "ripen" later. A gentleman working the cellar door at Dry Hills in Blenheim (the "heart" of Marlborough) said it was one of the shortest vintages in his memory, although I have no idea of how good his memory is.


vineyards @ dry hills

With that being said, there is obviously a lack of grape and juice related tasks to complete in the cellar. Yes, no more lees filtering either as of today. So, that means lots of cleaning. Its a full blown cleaning party at Yealands, and tonight may be the pinnacle being that there is absolutely NOTHING to do other than clean in the cellar.... if I am lucky there may be a racking to perform. We'll be scrubbing to the soothing sounds of techno music probably, courtesy of local guy Bob, who has worked the crushpad this vintage and loves his techno. Well, wine making is 90% cleaning as they say, but its the scope of the winery that takes this cleaning to the next level.

Fortunately we will have some pinot coming in over the next 5 days or so, so there will be a bit more grape related work to perform. Also, as the fermentations progress and finish, there will again be more wine related work to perform. So, for now, we clean. Cheers.


Yealands Estates