To our dormancy edition!
If budburst is anything to go by, even the Chardonnay has had a proper sleep this winter! As our pruning team battled the elements throughout what seemed a very long winter, in the winery the bottling line has been running flat out.
Ashbrook is honoured to once again be included in Australia’s top-rated wineries in the latest Halliday Wine Companion and we continue to receive wonderful reviews across our range of wines.
Hope you enjoy the read!
To our Vintage 2021 edition!
After a nerve-racking week of lockdown, our Chardonnay harvest began on February 9th (c.f. February 4th last year). Despite 81.4mm of rainfall during the month of February (mostly 7th-10th), all our white varieties were picked in good time and in beautiful condition - stunning natural acidity and delicious varietal flavour.
Another 51.6mm of rain on March 4th delayed red grape harvesting by a week or so but we managed to stay on track to have all our grapes in the winery by Easter! Our open lyre trellising has been a blessing in this atypically wet and humid year, reminiscent of 1998 (according to Brian- and Carol-pedias).
Out of the vineyard, we have again had very successful results in the Sakura Wine Awards with one silver and two gold medals. We have had some fantastic wine reviews and the number of patrons through our cellar door has been wonderful.
Hope you enjoy the read!
To our 2020 Spring edition! Thrillingly, we finished bottling our 2020 Chardonnay last week, hopefully a valid reason for our Spring
newsletter being released three weeks into summer!
It’s been a very busy few months in the vineyard and winery and time has flown. Wine dinners and tastings, hay cutting, raking and rolling, working cellar door, vine tucking and lifting trellis wires, blending, filtration and bottling, red barrel topping, mail orders and everything else that goes with running a family business has swallowed the days.
We’ve had some fantastic wine reviews and if the just bottled 2020 Chardy is anything to go by, the future is looking very exciting.
Hope you enjoy the read!
Lockdown and our remaining hard border have facilitated and reinvigorated Ashbrook Estate’s relationship with so many wonderful West Australians. I am sure this story would be echoed by most local producers especially in the regional areas of WA. This stunning State offers enormous variety and it is heart-warming to see people who live here, visiting here, buying from here, from the source. We have seen a genuine interest in where and how the grapes are grown and in their transformation from vine to wine. There’s a focus on quality, sustainability and value for money. People have discovered just how well, and how affordably, they can eat and drink at home. I imagine wine rack and fridge sales have done very well over the last few months. Our freedom in WA is not taken for granted. Uncertainty and contingency plans are here to stay.
With the cancellation of several major wine shows around Australia and the world, we were extremely lucky to have the chance to exhibit our wines in the 2020 Perth Royal Wine Show. Our 2020 Ashbrook Estate Riesling, Verdelho, Rosé and 2018 Chardonnay all received medals. Cath was lucky enough to attend the post wine show luncheon, featuring the Jack Mann Memorial Medal presentation, on our wonderful WA Fine Wine Wholesalers’ table. Thank you to Ronnie Lawrence and the FWW team for their hard work and continued support throughout a challenging year for everyone. Our hearts go out to our wine friends and family over east. May the virus be controlled, the borders relaxed and Australia be whole again.
To Ashbrook Estate’s Autumn 2020 Newsletter!
We are counting our blessings in what has been and still is a difficult time for many – thank you to our loyal customers and business partners for
their ongoing support. One of the benefits of living and working in the same place is that we have continued to go about our business without pause.
Through two significant storms that wreaked havoc with the district’s roads and power supply we managed to successfully bottle our 2020 unwooded white and rosé wines.
Now, as our vineyard quietly puts itself to sleep for the winter, we look forward to WA and Australia revamping with that true Aussie spirit.
Enjoy the read!
Vintage 2020, a little hectic, but we can’t complain. Two weeks earlier than last year, and no break in between varieties has set a fast-paced schedule. With the help of more than 60 international travellers, 80 tonnes of beautiful, hand-picked fruit have so far been delivered safely into the winery for processing. Our Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Verdelho and Shiraz crops are a little lighter than last year (possibly due to a rain event in late November) while our Riesling, Chardonnay and Cabernet vines are yielding just above average. Everything is looking and smelling amazing - check out the photos on page four and five of this newsletter. Tipping 2020 will be a delicious vintage!
It’s Sesame Street maddies in the vineyard this time of year! Keeping up with Mother Nature requires being in every block of the vineyard all at once. We have been blessed with lovely sunny days and cool nights and the vines are looking healthier than ever - keeping the vineyard team fit!
If our wildflowers, livestock and haymaking have been an indication of anything, the season is looking very prosperous, touch wood. Off the farm,
Ashbrook has had a busy spring with our wines featured at the 2019 Gourmet Escape Secret Garden Twilight Dinner, our 2019 Rosé snapped up silver at the Margaret River Wine Show and Ray Jordan has included our 2019 Sauvignon Blanc in his Top 100 Whites.
Enjoy the read!
In the Australian wine industry’s cycle of trendiness Chenin Blanc is currently enjoying some press time. And if you’ve followed Margaret River wines for long enough, you’ll know that historically alongside Chenin comes Semillon! This fantastic third party endorsement from wine industry veteran Ray Jordan, confirms that our persistence with these classical winegrape varieties is well justified.
Although finicky in the vineyard and slippery-slimy in the winery, the hard work is worth the effort. Vibrant and flavoursome when young, Semillon complements an array of seafood, chicken and vegetarian dishes. After five or six years cellaring the wines become richer, more complex and slightly honeyed and nutty and can accompany dishes you might normally pair a Chardonnay with. The story of each vintage is reflected in the flavour profile of this variety, which makes for exciting vertical tastings. For several years now, Ashbrook has been purposefully reserving a limited quantity of each vintage’s Semillon to showcase the versatility
To Ashbrook’s 2019 vintage edition newsletter! After a long, cool growing season our first grapes (Chardonnay) were hand-harvested on February 26th and our last (Petit Verdot) on the 12th April. In a year of negligible red gum blossom, clever juggling of vineyard netting was crucial to avoid bird damage.
Once again, our unique lyre trellis system and vigilant vineyard management avoided any disease issues. With 110 tonnes of top quality grapes (all hand-harvested) safely in the winery by Easter, we are a happy team at Ashbrook. It is often said that pictures speak a thousand words, so in this newsletter we will let our vintage photographs do the talking.
Enjoy!
So far we have experienced a cool, gentle ripening with temperatures only reaching above 30°C nine times. A rain event on January 22nd purely served to refresh the vines as the wind blew and the sun shone in the immediate days to follow. Hedging and the application of bird netting commenced in the last week of January once canopy growth stopped and fruit ripening took over in the earlier varieties. We anticipate harvest to be underway by the last week of February. In the meantime, we are putting together our picking team, preparing the winery equipment and machinery, monitoring calving, feeding hay rolls to cattle, processing wine orders and managing the cellar door!
To Ashbrook’s 2018 Spring edition newsletter. The sunshine has brought with it amazing growth, endless vineyard work and increasing wine consumption, keeping us on our toes! Find out what’s happening at Ashbrook in the lead up to summer!
Welcome to Ashbrook Estate’s quarterly newsletter.
Publicising all the newsworthy things happening on and off the property. Including upcoming and new releases, accolades, our team, vintage, seasonal notes, milestones and Ashbrook events.
From trellis to table, we hope it’s an enjoyable and informative read keeping you in the loop of all things Ashbrook!
