Luckily, a drier than average winter followed the very wet autumn this year, but now a ‘La Nina’ event has been confirmed and is making itself known with some solid falls of rain this month. I will be jumping on the opportunities to get some anti-fungal sprays out on the clear days and be glad that I’ve retired from my ‘off site job’ to free up time to strike when the opportunity presents itself. How did we do this in the past (when we were still working off-site)?
In the meantime, this very ‘English spring’ is bringing on an explosion of growth and flowers in our garden (aka our ‘cellar door’) and doing wonders for our two newly planted vineyard blocks. Over winter, I have spread a mix of pelletised chicken manure, pelletised worm castings and ‘blood and bone’ through most of the vineyard blocks to revitalise the soil after some tough summers had left our vines looking a bit tired and ‘bony’ at pruning time this winter. The results were showing when we were planting some new red grapevine rootlings with a healthy population of earthworms and strong growth of grass and clovers in the inter-row.
Recently we had our first order, since the start of the pandemic, from our mainland (East Coast) distributor, which was very welcome, considering the state of the Melbourne lock-down. We can only hope that some border openings and possibly a travel bubble with New Zealand will breathe some life into the Tasmanian tourism sector for the summer season. This is conditional on the general public being careful at all times to follow guidelines to minimise risk. The number of visitors has definitely gone up for this time of the year as more Tasmanians are taking breaks to explore the state as overseas holidays can’t be taken and travel interstate is very difficult. When state barriers are finally lifted, we hope to see a lot of tourism activity returning to Tasmania but it will require the confidence of people to trust the systems put in place to mitigate risk.
At present, due to covid restrictions, we can no longer just be ‘open’…all tastings must be ‘by appointment’ to comply with covid regulations re seating requirements and distancing. Please feel free to ring Rita’s mobile (0407961167) to make an appointment.
We have also been fortunate to have sent our first consignment to the U.K which involved a lot of work by Rita to handle the ‘red tape’- wine analyses, export approvals, transport arrangements, new labels, payments, etc. So, if you have friends or family in the U.K (or EU), then please let them know our wines will be available from The Vinorium from the end of November…or maybe you can order them as Christmas presents?
For those of you who like our The Mattock, you might like to try this recipe from Roberta Muir (manager of Sydney Seafood School & Food, Wine & Travel writer) Steak with Green Peppercorn Hollandaise
Stay safe everyone,
Cheers, Bob
