Dutschke - Barossa Valley

We trust all is well!

After attempting to write this letter for weeks I am finally doing it. We finished our Vintage some time ago, but there’s been plenty happening since then and it’s been tough to find a break during the day to sit down and scribe. Today I have the afternoon pretty much free, so it’s pen to paper! Here we go!

The 2008 harvest for us was another early one beginning on the 4th of February with the picking of Frontignac for our Moscato. The first of the red grapes rolled into the winery on the following Monday with the first parcel of Shiraz from Gods Hill Road at 14.6 Baume. Beautiful stuff! Just what the doctor ordered! The St Jakobi Shiraz came into the winery the week starting the 18th of February, looking perfect to make dark purple wine. The flavours, colour and sugar were all spot on, so we got into it and we just kept going. Our last grapes for red wine were harvested on the morning of 7th of March. Tokay and Sun Dried Shiraz came off the vine on the 14th March. We are so pleased and proud of the fact that we finished the short and intense Vintage as early as we did.

The 2008 Vintage wines look fantastic! During February there were many local winemakers in the neighbourhood singing the praises of harvest. The crop levels were good (still a little below average, but twice as much as last year) and the colour of the grape juice and flavours were something we hadn’t seen to such a degree since Vintage 1998. The weather in the Barossa during February was very mild with temperatures 2 degrees below average for the district. After the marvellous February weather the tables turned for March, with South Australia running into an extended hot spell (15 days above 35 degrees). Well, fortunately for us, the Cabernet (our last pick for red wine) was harvested on the morning of day 4 of the heat wave. The 11 days to follow had daily maximums between 39 and 41 degrees Celsius. We couldn’t have timed our harvest better, even if we had known the heat wave was on its way. We’re faced with different challenges every year, but after the intense compact 2008 Vintage, we have finished with a fabulous collection of dark purple Shiraz in barrel.

Before introducing what’s new from our 2006 Vintage I’ll share some news on a couple of interesting things we achieved during the 2008 Vintage.

Dutschke crushes and ferments Greenock Shiraz and Cabernet
I received a phone call late last year asking if Dutschke Wines would be keen to purchase some Shiraz and Cabernet from Brett Roenfeldt’s Greenock vineyard. Our thoughts have always been to produce wines from grapes grown close to our front gate and not travel too far to look for more grapes, but when the opportunity came up I thought “why not?” So we did! And jolly glad we did too!

2006 Dutschke wines are bottled under screw cap.
Apart from what we bottle for our friendly Russians and Israelis, our entire 2006 Vintage was bottled under screw cap. The Russians and Israelis haven’t yet caught on to the advantages of screw caps and maybe still don’t consider the risks in having a wine spoilt by packaging it with cork. So rather than continue to be concerned about the quality of cork we’ve decided to package under screw caps. What we have put into the bottle is what you’ll find when you screw the top off.

My Dad Has Purple Hands
Our kids’ book is finally printed and bound and ready to go! It’s been a long time in the making, but it’s been plenty of fun and excitement for us. The illustrations are full of colour and imagination thanks to our good mate Paul “Pablo” Cassidy. The story covers the steps of winemaking from vineyard to bottle seen through the eyes of a child who grows up on a property with vineyard and a small winery. We have had so much interest in the book it’s been overwhelming. We even have had some interest from folk overseas keen to translate the book into Italian, Danish and Hebrew.

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Previous Issues

Dutschke Wines Newsletter 2007 Dutschke Wines Newsletter 2006 Dutschke Wines Newsletter 2005 Dutschke Wines Newsletter 2004 Dutschke Wines Newsletter 2003 Dutschke Wines Newsletter 2002

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