Date Day / Mogo

About forty minutes drive to the south of us is Mogo. It's just past Batemans Bay.
The town was established with the discovery of gold in the 1850s in the Cabbage Tree Creek area and, at its peak in the gold rush days, had several hotels and churches, many shops and a public school.

The boom, however,was short lived and Mogo gradually declined to become a sleepy backwater.
In the 1980s the town became home to a small group of artists and craftspeople, some of whom still operate in town today.
Mogo’s architectural heritage has been maintained with shops and dwellings being built to compliment the surviving miners cottages.

These buildings are now galleries and specialty shops offering traditional and modern art, exotic and unusual artifacts, jewellery, home decor, books, ceramics, collectibles and antiques.
And there are also a few cafes.

The surrounding area is home to the Mogo Zoo, the Eurobodalla Botanic Gardens and the Original Gold Rush Colony
The quality of the shops there have tended to wax and wane over the years so we don't visit very often.
This time however we found a great variety including a kitchenware shop that would compare with any in Sydney or Canberra.
The co driver had had a hankering for some hokey pokey ice cream for some time. She believes the best is available at the Mogo Icecreamery.

Hers, of course, is the smaller one. We enjoyed these sitting in the late autumn sunshine and then looked through some of the shops before heading back to 'the Bay' for some groceries and sewing supplies.
This is a great time of year on the south coast of New South Wales. Warm sunny, virtually windless, days after a cold start in the morning followed by cool evenings.
We have started to have a fire at night.
Winter is just around the corner.

Vintage 2013

What started as a promising year turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.
Without going into a lot of detail, the Pinot Noir never really recovered from the 'battering' it took during the number of extreme high temperature/strong wind days we had during summer.
The resultant raisining of the fruit made it not worthwhile picking.
Despite continuous spraying against botrytis during the entire season, not just at the recommended growth stages, the Semillon succumbed to this fungal disease very quickly after a week of rain just before the potential harvest date.
We decided against picking and sorting through the limited remaining crop.
Makes you wonder what you have to do to keep botrytis out of this variety in this climate.

                  The Tempranillo was light on crop from the start and despite the good quality of fruit on the vines there simply was not enough to make it worth while picking and it had ripened too early to include it into the Cabernet Sauvignon harvest.
The Cabernet Sauvignon was also a little light on crop but of excellent quality.
Surprisingly we had a bush rat 'attack' towards the end of the season which reduced the crop even further but we managed to bait them quickly enough to prevent any major damage.
This is a first for us but other local vineyards have reported similar incidents over the years.
So the Cabernet has been picked and fermented.
Baume was 12.5 deg and pH 3.8.
We are letting it macerate on the skins for a week or so before pressing to extract as much colour and tannins as possible.
Acid adjustment (to pH 3.6), malolactic fermentation, settling, racking, fining and maturation will follow.
It will be a lighter style with just a hint of French oak.

The Trees Think It's Autumn

Living in a country where there are no native deciduous trees the only real indication of autumn is a drop in temperature and humidity......and visually, where people have planted exotics.
So far we have not experienced the typical climatic conditions with it still being shorts and t-shirt weather.
But the exotic trees (and grape vines) obviously know better.
These are a few of the 'indicators' growing around us.

The 'Average' Australian

Results of the 2011 Census have been published and both the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the press have done the usual analysis.
So here is a summary (thanks to the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABS).
• Just over half of the population is female. There have been slightly more women than men in Australia since 1979; the ratio has been pretty constant at around 99 men for every 100 women for several years.
• The average Aussie is 37 years old.
• The average citizen was born in Australia. In fact, 74 per cent of the population was born in Australia, and more than 54 per cent had both their parents born here, too.
• The average citizen only speaks English at home, compared to the one in five who speak another language. The most common languages other than English are Mandarin (1.6 per cent), Italian (1.5 per cent), Arabic (1.4 per cent), Cantonese (1.3 per cent), Greek (1.2 per cent) and Vietnamese (1.1 per cent).
• The average citizen identifies with a Christian religion, most probably Catholic. This has changed a lot over the past 100 years – in 1911, 96 per cent of people considered themselves Christian, but that number has now fallen to 61 per cent.
• Both the average man and woman are in paid employment. Across the sexes, the most common occupation is sales assistant, reflecting the number of casual or part-time staff in the workforce. Other common occupations for men were truck driver, electrician, and retail manager; for women, the list included general clerk, primary school teacher, and office manager.
• Of those who worked in the week before Census night, men worked an average of 41 hours, compared with 32 hours for women. But this was switched when it came to domestic work; the average woman did five hours or more of housework a week, while the average man did less than five hours.
• The average citizen travels by car to work, usually as the driver – and the average family now has two or more cars.
• Just over half of the adult population (54 per cent) is married.
• The average married couple lives in a home with their son and daughter – and the children’s median ages are nine and six. It's most common for families to have two children; in those, 52 per cent have a girl and a boy, 25 per cent have two boys, and 23 per cent have two girls.
• The average family lives in a suburb of a state or territory capital, in a free-standing, three-bedroom home.
• The average family is paying $1800 a month to pay off their mortgage (35 per cent). Just over a third of families (33 per cent) own their homes outright, and 29 per cent are renting.
More details here.

Easter 2013

Easter is early this year. As result, despite it being autumn, we are still experiencing summer weather.
It's been hot and muggy with temperatures around 30C.
They have predicted a change for Good Friday and maybe that will be the beginning of our favourite time of the year climate wise.
Big things happen in Ulladulla at Easter. By far the most important event is the Blessing of the Fleet followed by a parade through the streets with floats and bands.
All the various arts and crafts clubs and groups have exhibitions of their work throughout the town and there is a huge outdoor market down at the wharf on Easter Monday.

Of course this means we are inundated with tourists during this time.
The roads in and out of town will be clogged and most visitors will be trying to eke out every second of their holiday break over the four days.
For us it means a a quiet time at home.
We did our shopping early on Wednesday getting enough vittles to see us through until next Tuesday.
We have stocked up on hot crossed buns but resisted the urge to overdo the chocolate eggs and bunnies.
We shall close the gate, put up the electric fences and get the cattle up to eat down the grass in the house paddock effectively shutting us off from the outside world.
Not a bad thing to do occasionally.

A Combined Date Day

Neighbour Bob called early on Sunday morning wondering if we were interested in joining him and the Jude for lunch at the Pigeon House Tea Rooms.
This is a relatively new cafe set on top of the mountains behind us.
It overlooks the wild Budawang Range which is part of the Great Dividing Range that runs the entire length of eastern Australia.
The dominant feature of this part of the Budawangs is Pigeon House Mountain named by Captain Cook on his voyage of discovery up the east coast in 1770. The summit rises to 720 m above sea level.
The aboriginal name is Didhol (or Dithol or Didthul ) which means woman's breast.
Behind and to the north-west are two elongated plateaux of Byangee Walls and The Castle.

Pigeon House is easily accessible from the coastal towns and around 8000 people climb it each year. The approach from the car park is relatively steep and rough going and on reaching 'the core' you are faced with vertical steel ladders to climb. Not a place for the acrophobic.
Once on top, however, the 360 degree view can be amazing on a clear day.
Most people allow around 4 hours for the return journey and take lunch for a picnic on the summit.

The cafe is in a perfect spot with a panoramic view of the mountains, reasonable food, good service and a relaxed atmosphere. Lots of people there too which is a good sign.
We think we may have our half yearly valley residents get together there in July.

Rain......and Lots of It

February is our wettest month and we have had plenty of rain.
Total for the month was around 200mm (8in) which is double the average.
And not only that, we have had a lot of thunderstorm activity, some quite large and intense, and unusually for Australia these have spawned tornadoes albeit smallish ones.
Just to the north of us last weekend four touched down and made their way through some highly densely populated areas and caused quite a lot of damage.

For the grapes, continual wet weather means diluted juice and exposure to fungus disease.
The latter is patently obvious with sugar levels stalling around the 10 deg Be' mark.
We need at least another 2 deg Be' before it is worthwhile to harvest.
The good news is that so far the fungus has been kept away. This means that the leaf cover will be still good enough to start increasing the sugar level in the grapes once the fine weather returns.......if it ever does.

Cabernet Sauvignon and Its Parents (and Grandparents)

All European wine grapes are the same species ie. Vitis vinifera.
It is widely conceded that this cultivated species came from the wild race subspecies Vitis sylvestris found over southern Europe and western Asia.
The different varieties we are familiar with today are a result of centuries or probably millennia of natural cross pollination.
Many wine grapes are also the result man made crosses even to the point of crossing different wine grape species.
Up until recently is was not possible to tell what the origin of the current wine grape varieties were.
But with DNA profiling  the puzzle is slowly being unravelled.
It is estimated there are over 10,000 grape varieties with around 1500 being used for wine production. Only a small percentage have been genetically analyzed.
I have spent the day in the Cabernet Sauvignon block, green pruning, spraying, mowing and net mending.
I got to wondering where this variety, which is the classic Bordeaux red wine grape, came from and did some research.

 Surprisingly it turns out that Cabernet Sauvignon is not so old.
It was a chance crossing between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in a French vineyard some time during the 17th century.
Cabernet Franc is a very old variety and is said to be selected from wild vines.
Sauvignon Blanc on the other hand is a natural cross of Traminer and Chenin Blanc.
Traminer is one of the oldest European varieties and is said to be selected from wild vines.

Chenin Blanc is indigenous to the Loire Valley (Anjou), France and is reputed to have been in that area at least since the 9th century.
So there you have it.
Many countries are researching and developing hybrids. Our CSIRO already have a few in the field and in production eg. Tarrango (Touriga Nacional x Sultana) and Taminga ( a cross of a previously created crossing Merbein 29-56 and Traminer).
And the natural evolution also continues outside the realm of hybridization. Two different coloured Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are indigenous to Australia.
A chance discovery of pinky bronze fruit on a Cabernet Sauvignon vine in 1977 provided Cleggett Wines the opportunity to propagate this single cane cutting (called a sport in horticultural terms) at their Langhorne Creek (South Australia) vineyard.
This Bronze Cabernet Sauvignon grape is registered as Malian.
Several years later in 1991 through the same process of nature a White Cabernet Sauvignon grape was identified and subsequently registered as Shalistin.

Preparation for Vintage 2013

The main pre-vintage task is to get all the equipment clean as well as check out the integrity of some components. The acid environment of the wine making process can be harsh on tank seals, piping, gaskets and plastic airlocks
This includes the crusher, fermenter, basket press, tanks and even the picking baskets and shears.
While we cleaned up thoroughly after last vintage, a year's (and in our case 2 year's) dirt and grime can build up and everything needs to be pulled apart and done again.
It is absolutely critical to have good winery cleanliness and sanitation as dirty equipment does nothing but invite unwanted bacteria and yeasts to spoil the wine.
There are three important words used for getting equipment ready for clean winemaking.
The terms cleaning, sanitizing and sterilizing are used interchangeably.
But all three mean very different things.
Cleaning refers to the physical removal of visible dirt, grunge and old wine deposits. This is usually done with a hose with a jet spray, scrubbing brushes, scouring pads and old towels plus lots of detergent and elbow grease.
Sanitizing means doing something to equipment to reduce the microbial load to an acceptable level ie. killing spoilage microorganisms with heat or a chemical solution.
Sterilizing is another step altogether and one that goes beyond the scope of anything that can be done practically in a winery environment ie. making it completely free of bacteria or other microorganisms.
Sanitizing takes place just before equipment use.

The most common sanitizing solution used in small wineries is a strong sulphite solution.
I usually dissolve 3g potassium metabisulphite and 12g of citric acid in 4L of water. This yields about a  500 ppm solution of sulphur dioxide (SO2) which is very effective as most wine spoilage microbes are sensitive to it at this concentration.
The acid addition essentially makes the sulfur dioxide more effective ie. the SO2 consists of molecular (unionised) sulphur dioxide, the bisulphite anion and the sulphite anion with the proportions of these depending mainly on the pH.
Molecular SO2 is the most germicidal.
The more acid the solution,  the higher the proportion of molecular sulphur dioxide.
All the physically clean surfaces are rinsed well, let dry and then sprayed with the sulfur/citric acid solution. After it has been in contact for about 5 to 10 minutes the surfaces are rinsed again with clean water.
And then we are ready to go.

The Mystery May Be Solved.

This year we lost three calves out of the six born.
We have never had such a high mortality rate.
The vet said it was the very wet season that had caused a tick plague and that young animals were very susceptible to the tick toxin.
We received our rural rates notice the other day. This comes from a state government instrumentality that deals with pasture protection and livestock health, sales and transport.
Their newsletter had very an interesting article.

There has been an outbreak of  the Ikeda variant of Theileriosis (bovine anaemia) on the south coast.
This disease is caused by Theileria orientalis a vector borne blood parasite.
Bush ticks, among other biting insects, are believed to be a common transmitter of the disease.
Calves are very susceptible succumbing from between 6 and 16 weeks of age.
Most the symptoms listed were noticed in our calves including the sudden death of apparently healthy ones.
There is no treatment.
Prevention is the cure.
Keeping the animals healthy by drenching for fluke and worms as well as feed supplements is one way.
Pour on insecticides/repellents during the tick season is another.
We will be ready next season.

Vintage 2013 / Harvest Gets Closer

We have been busy testing the grapes for ripeness.
Ripeness can mean a number of things. To most, sugar ripeness is the criteria. This means when the sugar level gets to a certain stage that produces a wine with suitable alcohol content then it's ready.
To others there is flavour ripeness to also consider. That is when the grape is exhibiting its typical varietal characteristics. To get both these happening at the same time is the goal.
My first ripeness runs are simple ie. walks around the rows with sample tastings from a selection of berries from random bunches. It's easy to tell when the sugar level is not quite there. There are 'green' flavour characteristics with a distinct malic acidity showing through.
During follow up walks, I look at the stalk of the bunch for colour change (brownish rather than green) and during a taste for sweetness look at the seeds for maturation (again dark rather than green), then I test the juice which I squeeze onto a hydrometer.

This gives me the sugar level in Baume' (a degree of density) which in turn gives me an indication of the final alcohol content of the wine ie. 13 deg Be' should be around 13% alcohol.
We look for a level between 13.0 and 14.0 deg Be' with the exception of Semillon when around 11.5 deg Be' suits the wine style we like to make.
This is a good indication when a final test should be made.
The final test is more exhaustive. We take a larger representative sample ie. grape berries from the top, bottom, outside and inside of many bunches, crush them and let the juice settle before testing.
We usually find that at harvest the Be reading is always about 1.0 deg below that of the test.
Some think pH (acidity) is also a critical test.
In warm climates like ours, pH will always be high ie. outside the required range for wine making.
We can adjust that with acid addition (allowed in Australia) during the wine making process.
So it looks like we will be harvesting the Tempranillo, Semillon and Pinot Noir in the next week or two.
The Cabernet has a long way to go. It will be late March, I suspect, before it is ready.

Tropical Cyclone Oswald

On 17th January, an area of low pressure developed over the the Gulf of Carpentaria several thousand kilometers to the north of us. The system quickly organized and strengthened into a tropical cyclone early on 21st January.
Although a relatively weak storm, Oswald produced torrential rain over much of Queensland causing extensive flooding, severe winds and even tornados.
In what is considered a strange set of circumstances the now intense low storm moved south down the east coast of Australia leaving chaos in its wake




















                     Late last night it hit us with torrential rain and rather high, but not high as predicted, winds. We were warned of possible 100km/hr plus.
We have had nearly 150 mm of rain in 2 days. The dams and tanks are full and the creek is running again.
The surf is HUGE with 10m swells off the coast.
Needless to say the potential drought is over and, even better, the bush fires are out.