The glory of sunshine

Greetings from Indo!

We are taking a much needed break. A new baby followed by a huge stellar vintage, opening a bar and keeping the LS train going had us feeling very much in need of some down time. Declan has headed back to the motherland to catch up with his family and as the cellar door is closed, the rest of the gang are pruning. A true sign of whether we’ve had a rough winter or not is to ask the pruners how they’re going. You might get a bunch of expletives about the rain, or a monologue about the glory of sunshine. (It’s been a good one, “cold as” but lots of sunny days)

The vineyard is looking excellent with it’s cover crops in bloom; we sowed peas, radishes and annual grasses in between rows where capeweed and kikuyu were dominant. This will help outcompete some of the weeds and also add some nitrogen back to the soil. We have also sown waterlogged areas with ryegrass to help manage excess water. Hopefully this rye grass will soak up some of the excess water and reduce the amount of root binding we have allowing the vines to get a better start in spring and a more even ripeness/crop load.

 We’ve bottled over 5000 cases (45 000L) of wine in the last few months, our 2015 selves would be tripping at that figure, and have a lot less wrinkles. We are so grateful to everyone who buys LSM, we still spin out at how much we have grown.

The next bottling in November will include the ’23 Chardonnay (which looks epic!) along with the rest of the textural whites, plus some 2022 reds.

The cellar door is set to reopen on September 16 with the new pet nat’s, spring whites and orange wines along with a bunch of the regular favourites. Speaking of pet nat, is it here to stay? We thought it was a trend that might fade, but it is still going very strong and for those that missed Natorious last year, it’s back for 2023. If you’re still yet to jump on the pet nat bandwagon… don’t get caught napping this year, they sell out and are pretty damn delicious.

 Upcoming events: The Orange Party at the cellar door, celebrating all things orange wine on Oct 22, plus a few others in Oct/ Nov and a couple of dinners to help celebrate the release of the 2021 Jolliffe Vineyard Cabernet. Keep an eye out for those on socials and emails.

From Dylan and Taryn