Stefano Lubiana Vintage Report Part 9
Diary note for April 24th, 2012
Australia’s wine
industry may not have the hallowed history of northern Europe’s wine regions,
but it surely has something else about it that’s very special: relative freedom
from bureaucratic regulation, and the capacity to grow and make wines according
to individual producer preferences.
Bottle-fermented sparkling wine from Nebbiolo? Sure
thing. Barrel-fermented Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio? Why not?
Late harvest Sauvignon Blanc? Yep, let’s give that a try.
For
fifth-generation winemaker Steve Lubiana, that’s the joy of setting up business
in Tasmania’s cool climate, Derwent Valley. You can do just about whatever you
like when it comes to growing and making wine in these parts. Much more than
would have been the case had grandfather Andrea Lubiana remained in Trieste 70
years ago and watched Steve being brought up making wine in the Italian
industry.
All of the afore-mentioned winemaking options are now a
part of the fabric that will be woven into the 2012 wines from Stefano Lubiana.
What a rollercoaster ride vintage has been for Steve
and Monique: a cold and wet winter and spring; early budburst; unsettled
weather during flowering; and a summer that held lots of promise weather-wise,
but didn’t quite deliver the uninterrupted run of sunny days and high
temperatures that the north of the State experienced in 2012.
That said, we’ve had an outstanding if somewhat
unseasonal harvest period. Rainfall in Hobart during March was only 68 percent
that of the city’s long-term average. Meanwhile, newspaper reports in The Mercury late last week noted that
the average maximum temperature so far this April has been a whopping four
degrees above normal. Wow! That’s extraordinary!
Extraordinary just might end up being the key word to describe the wines
of 2012. With only a few dozen rows of fruit still hanging out in the vineyard,
our crush to date has been anything but ordinary. We’ve vinified close to
two-thirds the volume of fruit that went through the winery in 2011 and 2010.
And as the small parcels of fruit we’ve
picked and processed this year gradually morph into 2012 wine, we’re becoming
more and more convinced that this will become a memorable vintage for premium
quality. Indeed, the dies have now been cast for a small number of very
distinctive ‘super premium’ wines.
Of course, there’s an old saying
that’s just as relevant today as it was hundreds of years ago: “there’s many a
slip twixt the cup and the lip…”
Having great fruit is one thing.
Turning it into great wine and getting it safely into bottle is an entirely
different matter.
One
thing that is certain right now is that we have had a fantastic work crew on
site this vintage. Our ‘blow-in’ winemakers may have come from different parts
of the globe, but they all arrived here with similar aspirations for quality…
and they have delivered that, day in, day out, without even batting an eyelid.
It
will be a pity to see them leave in a few weeks’ time. They’ve become an
integral part of what has been a very smooth and highly efficient processing
operation during the past two months. Besides, you wouldn’t meet a nicer bunch
of young winemakers anywhere else on the planet.
Vintage
activities can become a bit fraught at times when they’re conducted under
pressure, but there’s been no evidence of that at all during 2012. That’s very
important when you’re a small, family-owned company. You get only one shot at
vintage each year, and you have to make sure that you’re operating at optimum
performance levels whenever you’re on site and doing the business.
On the face of it, this week looks
like being a relatively quiet time around our Granton Vineyard. Mark, James and
Jamie still have a little bit of fruit to keep their eyes on, but for the most
part their days will be consumed by putting away the kilometres of nets that
have come off our vines. And of course, there are those dopey ‘Babydoll
Southdown’ sheep to round up and move on to their next vineyard block. (What
was it that WC Fields said? Never work with children or animals?)
Tomorrow, there’ll the opportunity
to have ‘a few quiet ones’ to help mark the passing of ANZAC Day, not to
mention the last remaining week or two of vintage 2012. Lest we forget.
PS
We’ve continued posting photos of vintage 2012 on our Flickr pages. You’ll find
them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefano_lubiana_wines/
Mark
Smith
The vintage team eating the ferment
The vintage team looking at the ferment
Mario Lubiana
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