Grange

Back in 1950, Penfold's chief wine maker, Max Schubert, travelled to Europe on a wine study tour. During his time in Bordeaux, he discovered the the magic of that region's red wines and how well they aged, some for 40 or 50 years and more.

At that time the Australian wine market consumed less than 10% table wine with the majority being sherry and port.

He returned to Australia determined to make a Bordeaux style table wine that would age gracefully.

Practicality dictated he use Shiraz rather than Cabernet Sauvignon and American oak instead of French for maturation. That affinity between Shiraz and American oak began an Australian school of winemaking which continues today.

He also used a primitive form of refrigeration to mimic the slow fermentation that was typical of a Bordeaux winery in October but definitely not that of an Australian winery in late summer.

In late 1956, a tasting was arranged of the first six vintages of the wine for the Penfold's board, senior management and wine identities in Sydney.

It was a disaster.

The Grange Hermitage (named after the French Region where Shiraz (Syrah) dominates) was ridiculed and its maker humiliated. Prevailing opinion was that it was too extracted and 'big', like a dry port. With a cellarful of what management considered unsaleable wine, Schubert was ordered to cease production just before the 1957 vintage.

But Schubert was determined to prove his critics wrong, and decided to keep making Grange in defiance of Penfold's directive. The 1957, 1958 and 1959 vintages are the so-called "hidden" Granges, made in secret, without new oak as its purchase would have exposed his subterfuge.

When the 1955 won Grange's first gold medal in 1962 the wine was set on its path to Australian and world-wide recognition.

Little more than a year after his death, U.S. Wine Spectator magazine also recognized Grange, naming the 1990 vintage its 1995 Wine of the Year and in 1999 including Grange in its top 12 wines of the 20th century.

For a more detailed account of the Grange story click: http://www.nicks.com.au/index.aspx?link_id=67.700

Shiraz has had its ups and downs in Australia, but Schubert demonstrated convincingly with Grange that this variety is the most natural red-grape companion to the South Australian climate. In every vintage, no matter how difficult, Penfold's winemakers can find enough Shiraz of the right style and quality to make a commercial quantity of Grange.

The "Hermitage" nomenclature was dropped after the 1989 vintage as part of the Australian wine industry's compliance with EU law not to use names describing local wines with a foreign regional connotation.

Today a bottle of 1951 Grange, if you can find one as only 1800 bottles were made, will set you back $A55,000. A vertical tasting selection from 1951 to 2003 recently sold for $A185,000. Back in the late 1960's and early 1970's I saved up and bought one bottle of Grange a year until buying houses and raising a family took priority. Then it cost about 25% of a weekly wage. It still does today. But most people buy it for investment rather than drinking and this inflates the price of some older vintages outrageously. Over the years I have drunk all mine and determined in my old age that I would rather buy 15 bottles of $20 wine than one $300 bottle. But for my 50th birthday a good friend bought me a bottle of the 1990 vintage. We sort of assumed co ownership and have discussed a few times in the last year or two whether we should send it to auction. Indications are we would get around $600! But with the co driver's 50th birthday in April along with the 63rd of the co owner, we decided to drink it!!!!!! This is from the current Penfold's tasting notes: History will record 1990 as one of the great Australian vintages of our generation.The 1990 Penfolds Grange is one of the best yet, with the potential to eventually rival the classic vintages of 1955, 1962 and 1971. Sourced from premium vineyards in South Australia, the 1990 Penfolds Grange is predominantly Shiraz (Hermitage) with a small percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon. With its solid structure and strength of character it will age gracefully and should be carefully cellared for a bare minimum of 10 years, and preferably 25 to 30. Medium-full red/purple colour. It is a beautifully weighted and concentrated wine combining very intense, ripe plummy aromas with smoky vanillin oak. Already, the wine is supremely complex and harmonious, with ripe plum and coffee-like luscious fruit, integrated oak, fine tannins and excellent length. Alc/Vol: 13.5%.

And from Robert Parker in 1995: The 1990 is the greatest, most complete and richest Grange since the monumental 1986. It rivals the 1986, 1982, 1981, and 1980 as the finest "young" Grange. The wine's opaque purple color is followed by a sweet nose of jammy black-raspberry and cassis fruit intermingled with scents of minerals, licorice, and toasty oak. Extremely full-bodied, with that layered, multi-dimensional feel that sets a truly profound Grange apart from just an outstanding one, the wine is fabulously concentrated, unctuous, and with a finish that lasts over 50 seconds. It is oh, so young, and in need of 5-10 years of cellaring. It should last through the first two decades of the 21st century.
The three of us could only concur with the above assessments and agreed it was one of the best red wines we have ever drunk. It went perfectly with a char grilled whole fillet steak (rare) which was then thickly sliced and served with horse radish, potato casserole and slow roasted roma tomatoes garnished with freshly chopped basil.

Elkhorn Ferns

Platycerium bifurcatum, the Elkhorn fern, occurs naturally in New Guinea and along the coasts of Queensland and New South Wales.

Platycerium is derived from the Greek words platys meaning "flat" and ceras meaning "a horn", referring to the shape of the fronds.
Bifurcatum means to fork into two branches, again, referring to the shape of the fronds.

The Elkhorn fern is an epiphyte which grows on the trunks and branches of trees.

An epiphyte is a plant that normally grows on another plant for support. It is not parasitic.

Each fern is composed of a mass of plantlets. A plantlet consists of a nest leaf, 12-30 cm wide, lying against the bark of the host tree. The nest leaves of neighbouring plantlets overlap one another and become brown and papery with age.

Fertile fronds 25-90 cm long protrude from each plantlet. Spores are produced on the undersurface of the end segments of each frond with spore producing areas coloured tan brown and have the texture of velvet cloth.

I brought a very small plantlet down from my father's garden about 20 years ago and attached it to a huge silky oak (Grevillea robusta) that grows in our garden. It has certainly has thrived and increased in size since then.

They require a shady area to grow in and need to be kept moist. Thankfully they are not prone to attack from many pests and insects except maybe for scale and mealy bugs. But we don't seem to have a problem with those here. Perhaps this is because we have a huge population of ladybirds living in the area and they are a natural predator. Another major reason for restricting the use of insecticides in the surrounding vine blocks.

This and a close relation, the Staghorn fern (Platycerium superbum) are very popular cultivated garden plants in Australia. There are only two other Platycerium sp. growing in Australia.

Platycerium sp. are subject to special regulations to help protect them in the wild. These laws cover activities such as harvesting, propagating, movement of and trade in whole pants and plant parts. When purchasing the plants in nurseries and elsewhere one has to look for those carrying an official government tag to be sure they have been legally obtained.

Vintage 2009 Update

We had picked the Pinot Noir about 10 days ago at 12.5 deg Baume' and 3.6 pH.
Fruit quality was excellent with a minimal amount of botrytis infection which was easily removed.
We did come across a red bellied black snake in the vineyard during picking. He/she was "relocated"...............so to speak.
After open vat fermentation, including second use French oak staves, had just about finished we transferred the wine plus the skins and staves into a sealed stainless steel tank and alcohol macerated for a week under a CO2 "blanket".
This was to try to extract as much colour, natural tannin and fruit and oak flavour as possible.
Warm climate Pinot Noir is notoriously low on the first three components.
The Tempranillo was picked last week at 12.4 deg Baume and pH 3.7.
During the crush, an equipment malfunction caused considerable juice loss but we decided to go ahead with a quick open vat fermentation by adding a fermenter 'accelerator' or yeast nutrient DAP (diammonium phosphate) and a fast yeast culture. This seemed to work and fermentation was extremely rapid.

Yesterday was a busy day.
We racked the Semillon off its fermentation lees and returned it to the tank with an addition of bentonite to begin the clarification process as well as a protective sulphur dose.
Bentonite is a clay that is used in wines as a clarifier. It is possesses a negative electrostatic charge. This attracting charge, along with hydrogen bonding, causes suspended particles in the wine to cling to it as it settles to the bottom of the tank. The clear wine is later racked off the bentonite lees.
We drained and pressed the Pinot Noir and returned the wine to a stainless steel tank with a lactic acid bacteria culture to initiate malolactic fermentation together with a solution of egg white to begin the clarification process.
Malolactic fermentation converts the harsher malic acid in wine to the softer lactic acid. The process also increases the stability of red wine as MLF can occur in the bottle producing an unwanted CO2 "spritz" during storage or worse, "popping" corks and breaking bottles.
Egg white is made into a 10% solution (with a little salt) and is used to clarify red wines.
One egg per 100-200L wine seems to do the trick. The yokes are used for omlettes later.
There are a number of other products which do a similar job eg. milk and casein, PVPP, Kieselsol, gelatin, Isinglass (fish's swim bladder derivative) being the most common. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. We have found that egg white works best for Pinot, not interfering too much with the wine's taste, and it always leaves a hard to disturb deposit on the bottom of the tank which aids the racking process.

We dumped the still fermenting Tempranillo must on top of the Pinot Noir marc and pressed that as well. The result was a dense purple wine due to the very high skin to juice ratio of the must. As expected the pH had risen to 3.9 ( high K+ content of the skins) and this will be adjusted with tartaric acid in due course. This wine will be let finish fermenting and then treated with a MLF cuture and an egg white fining. Whether we let it remain as a stand alone varietal or blend it into our Cabernet Sauvignon is yet to be decided.
Then it was a matter of cleaning up all the containers and equipment and returning the dry pressed skins to the vineyard rows as soil conditioner.

Cleanskins

Cleanskins is the name given to unlabelled wine.

According to Wine Australia, "a cleanskin normally is defined as a bottle or other package that does not carry, in any form, a label bearing mandatory information. Unlabelled bottles cannot be sold at retail to the public, but unbroken cartons can be sold if the mandatory information appears on the carton in an acceptable form. Cleanskins cannot be exported."

But it is not unusual now to see individual labelled "cleanskin" bottles specifying the grape variety, vintage and region.

The advantage of buying this class of wine is that it is usually very cheap, up to 75% off the medium wine price bracket, and in many cases it can be of very good quantity.

The disadvantage was that there is always a chance of buying a duffer that has to be poured down the sink. And when you have shelved out for a dozen, the saving all but evaporates. Initially most cleanskin purveyors insisted they sell in dozen lots but market forces have dictated they offer now single bottles for pre bulk purchase evaluation hence the individual bottle labelling. Where do cleanskins come from?

During times of wine glut, many wine companies are over stocked. To reduce stocks but not reduce the value of their branded wine by discounting it, they sell bottles unbranded.

So in fact it is possible to buy top class wines at ridiculously low prices.

This is not a new development. In the hey days of the wine cask (bag in a box / Chateau Cardboard) and wine gluts it was possible to buy wine originally intended for the bottle in this type of container.

The cleanskin market in Australia was quite strong for many years but it seems to have waned a little in the last year or two.

I had read that the Marlborough region of New Zealand, famous for its Sauvignon Blanc, was experiencing over production. This was reflected in many new brands and quite competitive prices in our liquor supply stores. In fact New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is now the biggest selling white wine in Australia finally putting the ubiquitous Chardonnay well and truly in second place after 20 years at the top.

Three of the five top-selling white wines in Australia (of any grape variety) hail from that region. The biggest selling white wine in Australia is Oyster Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, which has come from nowhere six years ago to about $40 million in retail sales, with 1.7 million litres of the wine poured down Australian throats last year.

The Marlborough 2008 harvest was 195,000 tonnes, up from 121,000 tonnes the previous year. The '09 vintage is on track to set another record.

So I thought that Marlborough cleanskins couldn't be too far away.

And I was right. A few weeks ago in my local wine outlet, there they were, at 50% off branded wines prices.

As you can see from our wine consumption in the side bar we are fans of this region/variety.

So we bought a few bottles to trial.

The result?

Not too bad, but not a real bargain. Better to spend a few dollars more on a known brand on discount!

Rugby

There are four main codes of football played in Australia; Australian Rules (AFL), Rugby Union, Rugby League and Soccer (known to the rest of the world as football).

In the past, these games were played on a distinctly state basis, the southern ones dedicated to "Rules" and the northern ones to the two Rugby's. Soccer has struggled over the years. It has been saddled with ethnic tensions and crowd violence due to the game being mostly played by immigrants and their offspring who have brought their prejudices and "old wars" with them. Naming the teams by their ethnicity did not help the situation either. In the 90's the governing body forced teams to rename according to their location but the teams still have specific ethnic supporter bases and some off field problems still occur.

All codes have now become national with most states having at least one team in their respective competitions .

....................................Photo: Getty Images

I was brought up on Australian Rules football and played it at school and for other outside teams until I was about 16. I also was forced to play Rugby Union at my secondary school.

As the years passed my interest in Australian Football waned as rule changes, team mergers and location transfers occurred with monotonous regularity (eg. South Melbourne became the Sydney Swans), decreasing the game's intensity and my passion for it.

I tried to follow Rugby League for a while but again rule changes "spoilt" the game and player transfers made it hard to maintain team loyalty. Also my team, South Sydney (the Rabbits) was always short on cash and lean on decent players so were mostly on the bottom of the competition ladder and getting 'slaughtered' every weekend.

Rugby Union had strong local competitions in both Sydney and Brisbane and the annual grudge match between New South Wales and Queensland was always a good game. Plus there were international matches when the Australian team, the Wallabies, played New Zealand (the All Blacks), England, France etc.

........................................Photo: Getty Images
So I drifted back to Union.

Most people believe rugby started when William Webb-Ellis picked up a football in 1823 and ran with it, at Rugby School, Rugby, England.

The code of football later known as Rugby Union can be traced to three events: the first set of written laws in 1845; the Blackheath Club's decision to leave the The Football Association in 1863 and; the formation of the Rugby Football Union in 1871.
A new Rugby competition, Super 14, was devised some time ago and consists of 4 teams from Australia, 5 teams each from South Africa and New Zealand.

Following this competition we have the Tri Nation Series between Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Then there are various so called Test Matches between other Rugby countries from Europe, South America and the Pacific Islands.

And every four years the Rugby World Cup is up for grabs.

As they say....when too much sport is not nearly enough!

The co driver is not sports orientated at all. And having witnessed what they call football in her home country I don't blame her. It's like watching paint dry.

However she began watching Rugby with me on TV a few seasons ago and now has turned into the most rabid fan. And dare I say she is even more enthusiastic than I am!

..............................Photo: Getty Images

We follow the New South Wales "Waratahs" in the Super 14 competition and have bought partial season tickets for their home games this year.

We went to the first game at the Sydney Football Stadium last weekend and watched the Waratahs play the Queensland Reds along with 28,000 other fans.

And we won......just!

Viewing a game live is much different from watching it on TV. You are further from the action and although you can watch replays on the big screen you can get a feeling of detachment. But the atmosphere in the stadium can't be equalled sitting on the living room couch.

I wondered if the co driver would be disappointed.

She wasn't and is looking forward to the upcoming games.

A March 2009 Update

It's calving time on the farm.

The first appeared a few days ago and by the looks of things there are a few more to come.

Stretch's mother could be next so we are keeping a close eye on her in case she runs into trouble like she did last year. Hopefully she will know what is happening this time around and will be able to look after her offspring.


We picked the Semillon on the last day of February.

Fruit quality was quite good with only the slightest hint of botrytis caused by the last few weeks of persistent rain.

Sugar level was 12.0 deg Baume and pH 3.3. And it tasted flavour ripe as well.

Can't ask for much better than that.

The Pinot Noir is not far behind as is the Tempranillo.

Am looking to get the Cabernet Sauvignon a bit riper this year, weather willing, so harvest won't be until April.

The Welcome Stranger

On 5th February, 1869, near the town of Moliagul in Victoria, two gold miners John Deason and Richard Oates dug up from under the roots of a tree, buried about 5cm (2ins) deep, the biggest alluvial gold nugget ever found. It weighed 69kg (155lbs or 2220 troy oz).
It was called "The Welcome Stranger".
They were paid ₤9,563 by the bank for it. In today's terms that's around $1.5 million which must have been a fantastic amount of money in those days. At today's gold price it would be worth $3.5 million.
No wonder both men quit mining, bought land, and retired to the easy life.
They had been, the day before the find, refused credit by the local store for a bag of flour they needed to supplement their meagre rations.
No picture or cast was ever taken of the nugget and the replica below is based on a couple of sketches made at the time.

Why my interest in all this?
There had been a photo of the event in the possession of my family as long as I can remember and I spent some time to seek it out.
It appears that the picture, taken by a local photographer at the time, William Parker of Dunoly, is a re-enactment.


The little boy standing behind the lady kneeling between the two miners with their crowbar and pick is my maternal grandfather.

South Coast Wine Show 2009

All three judges praised the entrants in this year’s South Coast Wine Show. Chief Judge, David Morris, said that while the number of medals was on par with last year, the standard was actually better. He said even the entries that missed out on medals were sound, well-made and were good, solid, commercial wines.

The whites continued to dominate with more than 50% considered worthy of a medal. While the number of medals awarded in the red classes was lower, David said the standard of reds being produced in the local region continued to improve, particularly the Merlots, Cabernets and Chambourcins.

He said the Semillon class, in particular, had been a "pleasure" to judge and the entries in this class were ‘superb’ and of world class standard.

The judges enjoyed the opportunity to meet with exhibitors and to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of individual entries at the Public Wine Tasting.

David said local winemakers were all very professional in their approach . It was particularly pleasing that there was an extremely low level of wine faults seen in entries; far lower than in many other shows.

Results Summary:

144 entries from 21 Vineyards & Wineries.

7 Southern Highlands Wine Region, 10 Shoalhaven Coast Wine Region, 4 South Coast Zone.

Medals awarded: Gold - 7, Silver – 21, Bronze – 44.

Special Awards:

Best Wine of Show
Best White Wine
Best Wine Made from Grapes Grown in Shoalhaven Coast

Coolangatta Estate 2005 Semillon (Gold medal)

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Best Red Wine

SHW 2006 Merlot (Gold medal)
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Best Wine Made from Grapes Grown in Southern Highlands

Cuttaway Hill 2006 Chardonnay (Gold medal)

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Best Wine Made in a Shoalhaven Coast Winery

Crooked River 2007 Arneis (Bronze medal)

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Best in Class [at judge’s discretion & at least 10 entries]

Chardonnay - Cuttaway Hill 2006 (Gold medal)
Dry Red Wine - Blends & Other Varieties - SHW 2006 Merlot (Gold medal)

The outstanding class performance had to be:
Class 24.5 DRY WHITE WINE – SEMILLON (any vintage)
1. Coolangatta Estate 2000 Silver
2. Coolangatta Estate 2001 Gold
3. Coolangatta Estate 2002 Bronze
4. Coolangatta Estate 2003 Gold
5. Coolangatta Estate 2004 Bronze
6. Coolangatta Estate 2005 Gold and 3 Trophies
7. Coolangatta Estate 2006 Silver
8. Coolangatta Estate 2007 Bronze
9. Coolangatta Estate 2008 Gold

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The Presentation Wine Dinner, where medals and awards were handed out, was held at the Vineyard Kitchen Restaurant at Cupitts Winery, Milton and was as usual a sellout.

The menu together with its accompanying medal winning wines was:

Canapes on arrival
Oysters with Lime & Chilli Granita
Sweet Corn & Pea Cakes with Crab Salad
Fig Tartlet with Prosciutto & Gorgonzola Cream
Centennial Vineyards – Non Vintage Brut Rose`

Entree

Prawn & Scallop Ravioli with Buerre Blanc Ciboulette
Coolangatta Estate – 2004 Verdelho & 2005 Semillon
Cuttaway Hill – 2006 Chardonnay
Blue Metal Vineyard – 2008 Sauvignon Blanc
Main Course

Rack of Tableland Lamb with Potato Puree, Flat Beans & Green Olive Vinaigrette
Southern Highland Wines – 2006 Merlot & 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon
Cambewarra Estate – 2005 ‘Simon’ Cabernet Sauvignon
Coolangatta Estate – 2007 Chambourcin & 2007 Tannat
Dessert
Passionfruit Curd with Clyde River Berry Farm Blueberries & Almond Sable
Cambewarra Estate – 2005 ‘Louise’ Late Harvest Chardonnay
then
Unicorn Brie served with Marinated Figs & Lavosh
Tea & Coffee

So all in all, this year's show was extremely successful. The committee now takes a few months off to rest before the organization of next year's show starts.

More detailed show results can be found by clicking on the South Coast Wine Show link on the side bar.

Hibiscus

When you have been down the beach for a swim or a walk, done all your domestic jobs and it's really too hot outside to get stuck into hard farm work what can you do?
Read, watch TV, surf the net, talk to your partner OR you can go Egosurfing (also called vanity searching, egosearching, egogoogling, autogoogling, self-googling) or simply Googling yourself.

This did not turn up anything particularly interesting so I decided to "do" my father and mother.

And there they were!

But not how I had expected.

Dad in his retirement became fascinated by Hibiscus, so much so he started hybridizing them from the hundreds of plants of this species that he had in his garden in Brisbane. He would take his small brush and collect pollen from the stamen of one and place it on the pistil of others, note book at the ready to document it all and little labels to hang around the stem of the receptor flowers.

Then if a seed did indeed develop, he would plant it and wait to see the result. Some were stunning, others not so much. He even stared hybridizing his own hybrids.

But when he got " a good one" he would register it with the Australian Hibiscus Society Inc.

And most were named after family members and some won prizes at Hibiscus shows.

So that's where I "found" him on the net. On the new data base on the AHS web site. And my mother was there too having had one bloom named after her.

After Dad died, I was approached by a few nurserymen who wanted any remaining seedlings and permission to take cuttings from the garden. I didn't know anything about PBR's (Plant Breeder's Rights) in those days so let them take what they wanted.

Who knows how many of my father's Hibiscus are in commercial production today!

But I also took a few seedlings and brought them home down south to plant out.

Being mostly tropical Hibiscus they struggle in our cool temperate climate and really have problems with the winter frosts. But I have them against a warm north facing wall and every now and again they produce a flower or two.

What they actually are will require a lot of research.

But the pics above are just two of them blooming in my garden yesterday.

And I still have huge volumes of photos my father took of his beloved flowers plus all the associated note books and journals.

So maybe one day when I have nothing to do I might just sort everything out and see what eventuates.

Bush Fires

December was a relatively cool month.

But then in January things changed and we have had some brutal summer weather, particularly in the southern part of the country, since then. The states of South Australia and Victoria have had days on end of 40deg C plus (104deg F) temperatures.

On Saturday 7th February in Melbourne it was almost 47deg C (116 deg F ) with 100km/hr (60mph) winds.

This weather brought with it the inevitable bush fires.

It was a disastrous day in Victoria with 209 now confirmed dead with the number expected to rise, with some estimates as high as 300. Many others are critically injured and there has been a huge loss of property including over 1800 homes. Some towns have been completely razed.

455,000 hectares have been burnt with devastating affect on wildlife and livestock.

We have so far been bush fire free in our local area. Temperatures have been in the high 30's but we have so far been blessed with sea breezes to take the edge off things. But there is a huge fire a few hundred kilometers to the south west of us that has been burning in inaccessible country for some weeks now.

South Coast NSW Update (13/2/09): We had a mild southerly change around 6pm on Sunday 8th February. Temperatures dropped by 10C and humidity rose.

It's now cool and humid with quite heavy occasional showers tending to rain.

The fire to the south west of us at Belowra is still burning but conditions are benign and have slowed the spread of the fire. We are in no immediate danger.

(click on above pic for more bushfire photos)

Meanwhile in Queensland torrential rain over an extended period has caused disastrous flooding, the worst in 30 years. In some areas it has been raining 40 days and 40 nights. It is now estimated that 60% of the state, about six times the size of Texas, is under water.

Australia is certainly a country of extremes.

A History of Bushfires in Australia.

Dec 30, 2007 - Blaze kills three truckers on a highway near Coolgardie in WA.

Jan 2006 - Three deaths and multi-million-dollar stock and property losses in 10 days of bushfires in Victoria.

Jan 11, 2005 - Nine lives lost in South Australian Eyre Peninsula bushfires.

Dec 2003 - Two women die as they try to outrun flames near Tenterden, 350km south-east of Perth.

Jan 18, 2003 - Four people die and almost 500 homes are razed in a massive firestorm in Canberra.

Dec 2002 - Two men die and more than 20 homes lost in bushfires that spread from rural NSW to ring Sydney.

Dec 2, 1998 - Bushfire claims five firefighters at Linton in Victoria. Dec 2, 1997 - Two die in bushfires at Lithgow in NSW.

Jan 21, 1997 - Three people die and 33 homes destroyed in bushfires that ravaged the Dandenong Ranges on Melbourne's eastern outskirts.

Jan 1994 - Four die, 200 properties lost, several hundred people injured as bushfires from rural NSW descend on Sydney.

Feb 16, 1983 - Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim 76 people.

Jan 8, 1969 - 23 people die in grassfires in Victoria across townships including Lara, Daylesford, Dulgana, Yea, Darraweit, Kangaroo Flat and Korongvale.
Feb 7, 1967 - Bushfires kill 59 people in southern Tasmania.

Jan 13, 1939 - Black Friday bushfires in Victoria kill 71 people and destroy several towns across 20,000 square kilometres of burnt land.

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Multi Media:

http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2009/national/darkestday/

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Photos:

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/2009/02/07/1233423569062.html

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Interview with a survivor (audio/slideshow):

http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2009/national/victoria-bushfires-sunday/index.html

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Pictures in this entry come from the Sydney Morning Herald Newspaper (8/2/09 and 11/2/09 editions).

Australian Wine Industry Faces a Challenge

The Australian wine industry expanded at a rapid rate in the 1990's. But now if faces a great challenge ie. a 25% over supply of grapes.

To meet current demand and projected growth over the next few years the Winemakers Federation of Australia estimated that a 1.6 million tonne annual production is required.

In 2008 the industry produced 1.83million tonnes despite the drought, frost events and irrigation controls.

There have been significant plantings over the last few years which is continuing and it is estimated that the industry could produce up to 2.2 million tonnes.
This is an over supply of over 0.5 million tonnes.

(click map for enlargement)

But the situation is exacerbated by increased wine stocks. Due to the large 2008 harvest it is estimated that inventories are around 250 million cases.Total domestic and export demand is 125 million cases per annum and it is agreed that inventories should be around 1.5 times future sales ie. 195 million cases.So it could be that we only need a 1.2 million tonne harvest for each of the next 2 years.
This is highly unlikely!
And the result of all this?
Grape prices have collapsed and grape growing has been made uneconomic for a lot of growers in most regions.
Australian wine producers have been stuck at the bottom end of the market instead of moving up to the price scale to the premium end of the market. Competition at the bottom end is fierce and they are cutting each others' throats.
While all this is good for the consumer (prices are very low at the moment) it is not ideal situation for the industry.

Veraison 2009

It happens quite quickly, seemingly from one day to the next, and veraison (colour change) is here!
I noticed it today in the Tempranillo while doing my scheduled fungus control spraying. Am sure it's happening in the Pinot Noir too which I sprayed last week and I bet the Semillon won't be far behind. The Cabernet Sauvignon has a few more weeks to go being the latest ripener.
It was happening only in a couple of bunches but this suggests that it's time to think about harvest and wine making and getting all the preparation jobs that this entails done.
This means getting the bottling of last year's vintage finished so we have tank space, cleaning and maintenance of all the processing the equipment (crusher, press, fermenter) checking and ordering chemical stocks (yeasts, acids etc.), finding the bunch snips that always seem to get lost somewhere during the year, cleaning the collection buckets and laboratory equipment and last but not least making sure the batteries in the pH meter have not gone flat (a perennial problem!).

And it is now all the grape growers/winemakers in the region go against all other farming trends and hope for no rain, especially the long term torrential stuff, over the next 2 to 3 months. This will allow the grapes to ripen with undiluted juice resulting in high sugar levels and full flavour as well as no threat of berry splitting and resultant fungus attack. In the Shoalhaven this would be a one in ten year event so we don't hold out a lot of hope but one can dream.
And I am sure in the next weeks the phone will be ringing with other vineyards checking on my availability for picking.
The lazy hazy days of summer are coming to an end.

Frogs

We rely solely on rain water collected off the roof of the house and other buildings and stored in four tanks for our domestic water supply.

It is a continuous job keeping the gutters, down pipes and tank filters clean of leaves and other debris.

I have tried a number of "gutter guard" products all of which have failed miserably for one reason or another.

Of course there are numerous integrated systems but you have to be a lottery winner to afford any of them together with the necessary professional installation.
So now I am in the process of trying another DIY system.

Part of the deal is cleaning out the gutters and tank delivery pipes before installation.

As expected there were the usual group of resident frogs living in the pipes.

They took the disturbance in their stride waiting in a nearby tree until my job was finished.

No doubt they soon returned to their spring cleaned abodes.

Frogs are part of our world here. They live in the dams, in the damper parts of the garden and bush and even in the septic tank.

It is not unusual to find one swimming around in the toilet bowl having made the long journey up the sewerage pipe. These are completely white having had no exposure to light. Their presence in this location has caused some visitors a little concern and screams emanating from the bathroom can bring a wry smile to those "in the know".

I have found that a permanent flushable toilet cleaner keeps them at bay but then this reduces their entertainment value.

At times when moths attracted by the lights swarm over our windows, dozens of frogs suddenly appear for a feast.

It is quite fascinating to see them stalking their prey with their little suckered feet sticking to the glass and then suddenly striking with their long tongues.

The New Year

Not much out of the ordinary is happening at this time of year.
Farm duties are somewhat mundane with a continued weed spraying project, rotation of the cattle into various paddocks to keep the grass down, vegetable garden tending and of course vine spraying and green pruning.
There has also been plenty of reading, beach walking and sports viewing going on.
And there has already been a little bit of wine drinking as you can see from the side bar.
I mentioned there that the Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz 2002 was outstanding. We had this with a special New Years Eve meal. A wine buff should chase down a bottle or two of this.
http://www.brokenwood.com.au/wines/
I am happy with most of the 2008 vintage. The Pinot Noir is excellent, the Semillon passable and the Cabernet Sauvignon is still very young but has potential. We "lost" the Tempranillo rose' to oxidation. If all goes well I will be entering one or two of these wines in the Milton Show in March.
The 2009 vintage will be on us soon enough!

Summer has been a strange mixture on the south coast so far with hot steamy days followed by a succession of really cool ones and plenty of rain. I don't think I have seen the area greener for over a decade.
We have had a few good thunderstorms with spectacular displays of lightning and sometimes simultaneous wall shaking thunder. These have kept the water tanks full.
I had a wander around the garden today to see what flower pictures I could take to put in this entry. Not a lot around. One plant in flower however is a wild passion fruit. It has hundreds of buds. I put the camera on macro and managed to capture a bee coming in for a landing on one of its blooms.

And above is a pic after a thunderstorm a few days ago taken late afternoon from our front veranda.

Hopefully the pot at this rainbow's end contained a little bit of gold for us all in 2009.

Christmas Holidays on the South Coast

Most of the year we have access to plenty of deserted beaches within twenty minutes drive of us, the closest a few minutes across the main road. During school and public holidays there is an influx of visitors and we see more people on the beach. The "worst" time is the Christmas break where our population quadruples with temporary residents and visitors on summer holiday. Apart from crowded beaches, the roads are jammed with sometimes long delays, parking and shopping in town becomes a nightmare and prices increase. The normal lay back nature of the area seems to disappear with a more "frantic" atmosphere prevailing. I guess people from the city want to wring every second of leisure time out of their 3 -4 weeks annual leave. But when this translates into someone behind you continually bumping their cart into your legs in a supermarket check out line going nowhere it does test your patience a little.

We try not to be selfish and are greatly aware that the area needs this annual economic boost to get through the leaner times of the year. So we grit our teeth as we head to our favourite beaches and try to avoid the masses and their beach tents, umbrellas, beach chairs, screaming kids, football, cricket and volley ball games, kite flying, boom boxes, empty bottles and rubbish left as well as unattended dogs that crap everywhere. And why, when you do find a relatively secluded spot at the furthest end of the beach, does a family arrive and park themselves a metre from you? But it's only for a month or so. By mid February they will all be gone leaving all those tourist dollars behind. OK, have had my annual whinge and leave you with a video view of a couple of our beaches, pre Christmas holiday rush, and best wishes for 2009.

Lizards

There are five families of lizards living in Australia. These include monitors, geckos, legless, skinks and dragons.
By far the biggest family is skinks (Scincidae) which has well over 300 species in it. Skinks make up over 50% of all Australian lizards.
We believe we have what are Eastern Water Skinks (Eulamprus quoyii) living around the house. They grow to about 30cm (1 ft) long and eat a whole range of insects.
They have been breeding quite well over the years and are quite numerous and like to lie on the warm verandas, steps and footpaths especially in the afternoon. Once you are used to them (and know that sudden scuttle is not a snake), it's nice to have them around. They seem to be used to us too either completely ignoring us or pretending they are invisible when we step over them.

Yesterday some movement in the backyard caught my eye. At first I thought it was a small dog , cat or possum in the garden but then it "took off" when I approached.
It was a huge goanna or monitor lizard about 2m (6ft) long that had been eating a dead bird in the garden. He ran up the nearest tree, their normal defence mechanism.

I have seen many in the bush around us as well as racing across the road (or worse, squashed onto it) but this was the first one I had seen so close to the house.
The co driver was NOT impressed! But I thought she had been here long enough now to know about such things and did not keep it a secret (like the 3m (9ft) python I came across in the shed a few years ago).
Goannas are predatory lizards with sharp teeth and claws. They prey on small animals; insects, lizards, snakes, mammals, birds and eggs and are eaters of carrion and are attracted to rotting meat.
They are not really dangerous, preferring to escape than attack but when cornered can be a bit of a problem.
For more info (and a great picture) on Goannas click on: http://www.walkaboutpark.com.au/index.php?id=228

Surf

We were promised a 4 metre swell as the intense low pressure system that caused all our wind problems moved east over the Tasman Sea towards New Zealand. This would have meant some of the big wave breaks in our area would have started working which is always exciting. Many previous unridable breaks have now been conquered due to the advent of "tow in" surfing and it is amazing to watch these brave if somewhat foolhardy souls pull into some pretty big waves.

But it was not to be. The waves were a fair size but not the giants expected. The above video was shot at a place called "Guillotines" near us. Shallow and rocky but capable of holding a good sized swell this break is for experienced sufers only. A small group of board riders and belly boarders were enjoying themselves before the holiday crowds hit the coast next week.

Unseasonal Gales

An intense low pressure cell developed over the south east of Australia during the weekend and we copped some pretty severe winds.
Victoria bore the brunt of it but we on the south coast of New South Wales had 12 hours of westerly gales with gusts reaching 80km/hr at times.

There was a lot of tree damage in the area.
I did a quick inspection of my boundary late on Saturday evening when it was safe to venture out and found a number of trees down over fences.

The tree damage around the house was quite extensive as well. It was surprising to see some trees had been snapped off well up the trunk.

So this will mean a day out repairing broken wire and posts as well as cleaning up and piling for next winter's burn off.

Thankfully there was no house damage although there were some strange noises emanating from the roof during the day at the height of the gale.

Grape vine damage seems minimal with the odd shoot or two ripped off.

And all the animals are fine as well.