An Autumn Morning at the Beach

The strange weather continues. A few days fine, a few days raining. It looked quite threatening with dark skies on Wednesday but we headed down to the beach for a swim and a walk.
However the ocean was very rough so a swim was out.
Everyone else must have thought it was a non beach day as there was only us plus a few seagulls.


That afternoon there was bright sunshine, blue skies and temperatures around 30 deg C!
So much for the weather bureau's forecast of cool and cloudy.

Autumn Flowers

In celebration of the Autumn Equinox, here are some flowers currently blooming in our garden.

Malolactic Fermentation (MLF)

Grape juice and the resultant wine contains quite a number of acids, the main ones being malic and tartaric.
The amount of acid in a wine is known as titratable acid (TA) and the acid strength is known as pH. Acid is an important component of wine contributing to taste (balance) as well as the chemical reactions that take place during the wine making process both natural and winemaker induced.
Malic acid is very tart and somewhat unstable in wine.
To improve the acid taste and increase the stability of wine it is prudent to convert this malic acid into the softer and more stable lactic acid, particularly in red wine.
This is done by introducing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) either as a culture or by natural means from the bacteria already present in the winery.
We use an Oenococcus oeni culture which is added to the fermenting must.

These little fellas (the white ones) get to work 'consuming' the malic acid and turning it into lactic acid and carbon dioxide. The evolution of this gas is the reason the process is called a 'fermentation'.
Improved wine stability comes about from not letting this process happen when the wine is in the bottle with obvious dire results ie. blown out corks and shattered glass.
MLF however will not take place in the presence of sulphur dioxide which is added to wine as an antioxidant and antibacterial agent. You see this as 'Preservative (220) Added' written on a wine label. This means we have to leave the wine unprotected until the MLF process is complete.
This is always a bit of a nail biting time in a simple Vin de Garage winery so this is the reason we add a culture ie. to get the process going and finished as quickly as possible.
The only sure way to detect if MLF has occurred is with a paper-chromatographic test.
In the meantime Vintage 2011 continues with the Semillon racked off the fermentation lees (dead yeast cells) and bentonite (clay used for stabilization and clarifying) residue and sulphuring. Now we just wait until all the remaining solids settle out and the wine clarifies. This may necessitate another racking or two plus sulphur additions.
The Tempranillo has gone through MLF and has been racked off the fermentation lees, sulphured and egg white added to begin the clarification process.
We are waiting for the Pinot Noir to complete MLF.
It continues to rain and rain. So far the Cabernet Sauvignon is holding up but experience has shown that a 'collapse' of bunches can occur virtually overnight eg. splitting.
So we are ready to pick at a moment's notice. It could be we are forced to make Rose' from this grape variety this year.
Only time will tell.

Vintage 2011 Continues

We have picked the Pinot Noir which came in at 13.5 Baume and pH 3.5
There were small patches of botrytis which were easily handled so it was not a bad result for a difficult year.
I am trying a new red wine yeast this year. It is an Italian strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and was supposed to be a fast fermenter that brings out the flavour of red grapes.
It worked well on the Tempranillo and is fermenting the Pinot Noir quickly too.
The ferment gets quite hot, around (30+deg C), which helps extract plenty of colour from the skins. Light coloured Pinots are always an inherent problem. But to prevent it getting too hot meant punching down the cap (mixing the skins that float to the top of the fermenting wine, due to the carbon dioxide being released, back into it) a few more times a day than normal including a late one just before bed and an early one before breakfast. I will let it sit a while in the sealed tank after fermentation finishes in an effort to extract more colour.
The malolactic fermentation culture and oak chips have already been added to the wine at this stage.
I have always used a wine yeast culture for fermenting wines ie. commercial strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

This yeast quickly dominates the fermentation while repressing wild yeasts. This ensures a reliable and predictable fermentation.
However different S. cerevisiae yeast strains can have differing physiological and fermentative properties. This means the actual strain of yeast selected can have a direct impact on the finished wine so it's good to try different ones.
Yeasts are normally already present on grape skins ie. the grey bloom. Fermentation can be done with these endogenous "wild yeasts", but this procedure can give unpredictable results, which depend upon the exact types of yeast species present.
A lot of wine makers experiment with wild yeast fermentation. They are said to produce atypical flavour profiles and/or increased complexity in wines. With my relatively primitive production set up there would be a risk of wine spoilage using this method.
But one day it might be one worth taking.

Vintage Helpers

During harvest four hands are always better than two.
The co driver is now an expert picker and all round cellar hand.
No longer does she complain about being covered in spiders and bugs as she makes her way down the rows snipping off bunches and quickly filling buckets.
And she is a deft bucket handler and stalk remover at the crusher/destemmer too.

The clean up process after crushing is very important. Getting rid of the residue of stalks and spilled grapes stops the usual invasion of annoying vinegar flies and helps prevent the development of wild yeasts within the winery area.
Cleaning the equipment to be ready for the next crush is similarly important.
I usually do this in the backyard. There is always a pile of grapes washed out of the crusher.
My cleaning staff of bower birds and currawongs is always waiting in the surrounding trees and at the ready to make short work of those. After all, the netting has been preventing them getting to the ripening grapes for weeks.
But this morning we had a new member of staff at work. Life in the country is great.

Vintage 2011 Begins

With the weather still not cooperating and forecasts predicting a wetter than normal Autumn under the influence of La Nina, we bit the bullet and started harvest.
First off was the Tempranillo. Fruit quality was down on previous years as was yield.
Sugar level was 12.5 degrees Baume' and pH 3.5.
Under the circumstances we were not too disappointed. A higher Be' (with a resultant higher final wine alcohol level) would have been nice however.

The Semillon came in at 11.5 Be' which is acceptable for wines made from this variety of white grape. The pH was 3.4
The fruit has been affected by botrytis much of which we managed to manually sort through and discard. It will be interesting to see if that fungus has any affect on the resultant wine quality particularly its oxidation 'resistance'.
Anyway, both are currently fermenting away and there is the usual fragrant smell wafting around the house.
Next we will be turning our attention to the Pinot Noir.
The Cabernet Sauvignon has a long way to go as yet.

It's That Time of Year Again

The grapes are starting to ripen and we are preparing for harvest.
Tests have shown that the Semillon is at 10.2 degrees Baume', Pinot Noir at 10.0 and Tempranillo at 9.8. It's too early to test the late ripening Cabernet Sauvignon.
If we get a few weeks of dry weather and sunshine then two more degrees Baume' for the white and three for the reds would be perfect.
But we have had the wettest summer on record with weeks and weeks of rain and cloudy days.

This has slowed up the ripening process mainly by the vines absorbing water and diluting the grape juice.
Also unfortunately the weather has completely disrupted our spraying program and for the first time ever we have a concerning amount of fungus in the vineyard.
One, although recently it has been classified as an algae, is downy mildew, Plasmopara viticola.
This shows up as a white deposit on the underside of leaves.
It attacks the leaves and eventually kills them and they drop. Without leaves the grapes will not ripen.

Another problem fungus is Botrytis or grey rot or bunch rot.
Botrytis cinerea results in a disintegration of grape berry structure and creates the ideal conditions for the infection of the fruit with yeasts and bacteria which increase volatile acidity
and laccase activity. The musts obtained from infected grapes are strongly compromised both microbiologically and chemically. This shows up as laccase enzymes, a high concentration of apiculated yeasts, acetic bacteria, lactic bacteria and high concentrations of gluconic and acetic acid.
The most important wine making problems are caused by the presence of laccase, an enzyme that oxidises wine polyphenols.
As an indirect consequence it causes the production of acetaldehyde, the reduction of the free sulphur dioxide, an increase in "faded" aromatics, the loss of primary aromas, the darkening of white wines, and an increase of orange notes in red wines.

So we have a bit of a battle on our hands this vintage to produce reasonable wine.
And why is downy mildew now an algae and not a fungus?
Because it needs water to sporolate and spread and it can produce its own food through photosynthesis.
Fungi feed on other organisms.
OK, enough microbiology, back to getting tanks, the destemmer/crusher, buckets and press cleaned up and ready.

Parli Italiano?

I certainly don't, but would like to.
The co driver is enthusiastic too especially since we intend to return to Italy for a long term stay in the near future. Our first trip to Umbria back in 2005 where we stayed in and visited out of the way places convinced us that more than a basic tourist knowledge of the language would be of great benefit.
My only other language is German (and sometimes American, when the need arises). Foreign languages don't come easy to me and it was quite a struggle to become proficient in the one. I can see a number of my readers from Germany nodding knowingly here (At least I tried, Dieter!).
During the same 2005 trip when in Germany, I was amazed how much I remembered and how easy the language came back. Being able to 'convince' a couple of locals to move from our pre booked train seats between Frankfurt and Mainz was a good testament to the training of the Inlingua Sprachschule in Koeln (Cologne), not to mention the patience of my work colleagues. I would also throw in a little teutonic assertiveness learnt in the corporate environment a few kilometers to the north of that city.
Universities of the Third Age, or U3As as they are more often called are voluntary, non-profit organisations which aim to offer older people low-cost educational opportunities which operate in a pleasant, supportive social setting.

There are no formal entry requirements, no examinations and no "awards". U3As are basically self-help groups built on the premise that collectively older people have the skills and knowledge to provide learning opportunities for themselves. In fact the word "university" in the title is used in its earliest sense ie. a community of scholars who get together to help each other in a learning/social experience.
U3A is a world wide organisation with groups in many countries. There are more than 3000 groups spread over all continents. The U3A movement in Australia per head of population, has the greatest number of groups in the world and continues to expand.
Most of the groups in Australia are community based and we have one in our town and they are running a beginners Italian language course.
We have enrolled and had our first lesson. Our teacher, Sam, is of Italian heritage (like so many residents in this once thriving fishing port) and the class has ten enthusiastic students.
We are trying to learning the alphabet, numbers up to 100 and days of the week and months as homework. The Internet is proving a wonderful tool in this endeavour. Lots of video/audio lessons can be easily accessed, especially on YouTube.
By the way, did you know the Italian alphabet has only 21 letters, not 26?
So we are ahead already!

South Coast Wine Show 2011

The 2011 show has been run, the presentation dinner held and medals awarded.
This year the judging and the public tasting took place at a new venue, the Mollymook Golf Club function center, and everyone agreed it was a much more comfortable place for both activities.
Certainly the view over Mollymook beach could be considered a bit distracting.

There were 143 entries from 24 vineyards and wineries, 10 in the Southern Highlands Wine Region, 7 in the Shoalhaven Coast Wine Region, 5 in the Nepean Hawkesbury Area and 2 from the remainder of the South Coast Wine Zone.
87 medals were awarded; 7 Gold 19 Silver 61 Bronze
Again, white wines were dominant.
More details can be found on this link.

Yasi's Aftermath

Yasi has now weakened to a tropical low causing flash flooding, hailstorms and 90km/h winds in an arc from Queensland's north-west, through Alice Springs and as far south as Melbourne.
Huge amounts of warm, moisture-laden air brought across the continent by one of the largest cyclones in memory have been dragged south, colliding over Victoria with a large cold front heading north.
That front ''ingested'' the moisture, causing huge cloudbursts that dumped rainfall of up to 200mm in just two hours over Melbourne and regional Victoria. Thunderstorms were also recorded in NSW's south-west and hailstones ''as big as golf balls'' fell in Mildura.
While Victoria coped with flash flooding in suburban Melbourne early yesterday, forcing the rescue of 84 people from homes and cars, 4000 calls to the State Emergency Services and the closure of train lines, major roads and freeways, Sydney was in the seventh day of a heatwave.
But the Bureau of Meteorology said Yasi was not affecting Sydney's weather. The heat was due to a hot northerly airstream, caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system in the Tasman Sea, bringing hot air from the centre of the continent, coupled with high humidity, cloudy nights and high ocean temperatures.

Yesterday Yasi was hovering over the Northern Territory about 430km south-west of Mount Isa, causing heavy rain in far west Queensland.
For us sweltering on the south coast, south of Sydney, the news of snowstorms in the USA looked particularly appealing.
We have just sweated through our hottest night on record. The overnight low of 27.6 degrees was one degree higher than the previous record of 26.6, which occurred in February 1973. It was still 33.2 degrees at midnight, seven degrees above the average daytime maximum temperature.
The sweltering night followed a record-breaking seven days of temperatures over 30 degrees, a feat never before seen in 150 years of weather records.
But according to the Bureau the heatwave will finally, and quickly, come to an end today, Sunday, after a hot start to the day.
And as I type, the cooling southerly is starting to blow.
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, We Have No Bananas

Queenslanders returned to their homes today to begin counting the cost of Cyclone Yasi after it smashed through the state's northeast coast, flattening crops in Australia's main banana and sugar cane growing region.

Banana crops in the region may be only 15% of their normal level, which is expected to see national banana prices quickly skyrocket toward $15 per kilo, in a similar pattern to Cyclone Larry, another category five cyclone, that hit the region five years ago.
A huge area of the sugar cane crop was also completely flattened by the cyclone. It is estimated more than $A500 million of cane could be lost.
Australia is the world's third-largest sugar exporter, after Brazil and Thailand.

The storm had forced tens of thousands of residents to seek safety away from its path, with the Queensland police confirming only one death so far . Others remain missing although Queensland Emergency Services Minister said the damage doesn't appear to be "as bad as had been feared."
The fallout will continue however. Rains from Yasi are due to hit the southern states over the weekend. Australia, particularly in the east, continues to struggle with a La Nina weather event responsible for Yasi and recent flooding in an area roughly the size of Germany and France in a devastating seasonal pattern that could persist for a few more months and possibly most of 2011.
More pictures of the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi are available on the link below:
http://tinyurl.com/4r2adyf

Cyclone Yasi Update

Cyclone Yasi crossed the north Queensland coast at Mission Beach, south of Cairns about midnight last night as a category five. Mission Beach, Tully, Tully Heads, and Cardwell appear to have borne the monster cyclone’s full force. It was early this morning downgraded to a category three and is still considered dangerous. The cyclone has left the major city of Cairns relatively unscathed and the city will be open for business "very soon", the city’s mayor says.

The premier of Queensland said it was too early to have even basic assessments of the damage in some of the hardest hit communities such as Cardwell, to the south of Mission Beach as police have not been able to get into town as yet. She said about 175,000 people in the area were without power, after the cyclone hit major transmission lines and restoring supply would be a major priority.

Cyclone Yasi

A category 5 tropical cyclone (hurricane) has been developing in the Coral Sea off northern Queensland for some time now.
It is now heading for the coast and is expected to cross it between Cairns and Ingham sometime tonight.
Winds are expected to be around 300km/hr (190mph) accompanied by a tidal surge of some 8-12m.
This is potentially the most damaging storm in living memory dwarfing Cyclone Tracy which completely destroyed Darwin in 1974.

Coastal areas have been evacuated and those who were unable to travel south have been located to cyclone shelters in major centers.
The Australian Airforce evacuated the patients from two major hospitals in the area south to Brisbane.
All the tourist islands on the Great Barrier Reef have also been cleared of people and all airports in the region closed.

The size of this storm is difficult to comprehend.
The above picture of its scale will probably help those not familiar with the Australian continent.
This, on top of the floods some weeks ago in Queensland, is making this 'wet season' one of the most disastrous on record.
Yasi could take at least 24 hours to weaken after it makes landfall probably going to go 500km inland before it's no longer of a cyclone intensity. Extensive outback flooding is expected.
I shall keep you updated.

My Summer Holiday Reading

It has been a very wet and cloudy summer so far this year. Not a lot of beach time.

But with a big stash of books on hand it was good to catch up on some reading.
Here are a few books that I enjoyed.

Peter FitzSimons is a journalist, an ex Wallaby (Australian Rugby player) and a prolific writer with twenty one books so far to his credit. He is predominantly a biographer. This time however he has written about growing up on a citrus orchard in the Peats Ridge area just north of Sydney during the 1960s.

An entertaining book written in his usual humorous style full of characters synonymous with the Australian bush and that era. The hardships and discomforts of country life are tempered by family love and support. Many of the scenarios reminded me of my childhood even though it was in suburban Melbourne. And, yes, it was indeed a simpler time.

Andrew Jackson...hero or villain? He was certainly a man of contradictions. A supporter of slavery and Indian removal on one hand, and on the other, a reshaper of American politics, including popular campaigning techniques, media manipulation and engagement of citizens in the process. He transformed both the American presidency and the nation he led during his two turbulent terms in office.
The book covers all the usual ground, Eaton affair, the Bank Wars, Federal Import Tariffs and Nullification as well as the many personal and political conflicts with the other major players of the time.
However there is plenty of new material gleaned from personal papers in the Hermitage archives.
Can be read as a history book or an historical novel.

A good follow up to the above Andrew Jackson book covering the sorry tale of native American tribes' forced removal from the east to the mid west over a number of presidential administrations. It is a story of greed, betrayal,and racism vividly told in the typical Langguth character driven style. I found the story of internal tribal conflict over Removal particularly interesting and not one generally well known.

A work of fiction which includes some actual real life characters eg. Father Damien, woven into the story. It's a tale of the leper colony on Moloka'i, Hawaii with a little bit of Hawaiian political history and centuries-old Hawaiian religious beliefs and mythology thrown in.
An easy read and with a 'hard to put down' status.

Back Up!

It seems I am destined to buy computers with a four year shelf life.

My HP laptop started doing 'funny things' a few months ago and, from experience, alarm bells started ringing.
So I started to back up my files.
Then all went quiet and I thought it was just a false alarm.
But no, a few days ago............POOF!
The dreaded blue screen.
Optimistically I took it into the repair shop. I always do this and always I get bad news and a bill for $50.
This time was no different.

So now I have a new one. Not another HP (you have had three chances, guys) but a Toshiba.
Learning a new operating system, Windows 7, reloading other programs and reestablishing 'favorites' is a time consuming task.
At least I have my precious files including photos and word documents.
The only exception are emails. I looked at backing these up a few times but it was a quite a convoluted procedure which I sadly postponed. But at least I had backed up my email address book.
So the lesson to be learned from all this is BACK UP!

External HDD's are cheap and easy to use. USB sticks even more so.
Put aside an hour or so every week or two and just do it!

The Queensland Floods

This is all happening 1000km or so to the north of us so we are unaffected. The Northern Rivers of New South Wales are also in flood.
It has been devastating for all concerned with many lives lost.

The Brisbane Times Newspaper is the best web site to catch up with all the details as well as some pretty grim pictures.
But as usual, Australians meet adversity head on with a little humour.

A statue of Rugby League football hero, Wally Lewis, outside the Brisbane football stadium is dressed appropriately.

The Daughter's Italy / Part 2

My travel companion Ms. B, and I landed in Naples airport on a humid afternoon with a long and unbeknown to us, convoluted trip ahead of us. We had challenges you see. Not only did the trip from Naples to Positano involve various planes, trains and automobiles, but in true family form I was H-u-n-g-o-v-e-r. Yes, with a Capital H. I had been out partying until 1am in my old Cambridge stomping ground and then I couldn’t sleep because I was paranoid about missing my flight. Polish vodka + old friends + early morning flight = Travel nightmare!

Something to remember when visiting Naples, well actually – strike that, make it ALL of Italy is that the male population are not backwards in coming forward. You could have heard a pin drop and the necks cracking as we collected our luggage and made our way to the bus. I hurriedly explained to the incredulous Ms. B that we were not about to get mugged by the group of mafia looking types that followed us, but they were simply staring because we were WOMEN. You know.. because Italy doesn’t have any women – right?
After navigating the connections that took us to the dizzying heights of Positano we disembarked the bus with a sigh of relief. I should have known that Italian bus drivers could drive one handed along sky high cliffs, while arguing with a passenger in addition to talking on his mobile phone. Believe me, my friend, The Hangover (yes, at that stage it was still with a Capital H) was tagging along in full force.

There’s always a problem with taking the bus in Italy. Knowing which stop to get off at – we knew we were in Positano… we could even see our hotel… but what separated us from it was about 1000 steps down to it (who knew we should have waited another stop?). So off we trudged. In the rain. With our suitcases. And a new friend who became a fixture in our Positano stay. Randy the dog (I will leave it up to you to deduce how he came to earn his name.. along with his girlfriend…. Mandy).
A pizza, a few glasses of Chianti and a generous serving of gelato in one of the seaside restaurants soon set things straight (and farewelled the Hangover – Hurrah for small mercies!).

I had one thought as we watched the sun slip into the sea…
Italy….. I really, truly, unashamedly love you.

Looking Back at 2010

A Happy New Year to all my readers.
Looking back, I guess the major highlight of 2010 was the breaking of the seven year drought. With the La Nina influence in full affect, rain came to most of Australia. Lake Eyre filled, even the Todd River in Alice Springs flowed and metropolitan dams that were down to twenty percent or less capacity are now over flowing. In fact a lot of NE Australia is now in flood.

Our dams and tanks are certainly full.

Weather also produced one of our year’s low lights when a horrific wind storm in early September battered us for 24 hours bringing down trees and leaving us without electricity for 3 days. Luckily there was no one hurt or house damage done.
Our decision to stay home and travel was a good one. The journey through western New South Wales into South Australia to the fringes of the outback and back through coastal Victoria was a highlight of the year.

We backed this up with a trip to northern Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef with American family in September. The day we spent snorkeling on the outer reef was magic!

Politically, our first woman Prime Minister, who came to power during a party coup, was re-elected for another term albeit as head of a minority government.
Australia had missed out on the worst of the global financial crises but the poor situation in North America and Europe continued to influence our stock market which bounced along at a regular level for most of the year. At least it is well above its lowest levels of a few years earlier.

The big news was the strength of the Australia dollar with it being worth more than the US dollar for the first time since it was floated in the early 1980s. Its strength was also reflected in record levels against the Euro. How long will this last is anyone’s guess but our currency is noted for being an investment ‘plaything’ so we just have to take advantage while we can. Certainly the high level reduces the competitiveness of our export industries eg. minerals, which are a major component of our economy.

So what are our plans for 2011?
First off we will enjoy the rest of summer, mainly at the beach, and then get through harvest. Then we will look at some travel plans for later in the year. With our strong currency the USA or Europe (or maybe both!) look tempting. But with the success of staying home to travel in 2010, southwest Western Australia and Tasmania are also on the radar.
So much to see, so little time!