2018 vintage is a wrap! So what’s next in the winery? Late autumn is time to re-evaluate and regenerate – a minor reprieve until the cycle repeats all over again.

For our grapegrowers, it’s time for a well-earned rest (usually in the form of a fishing trip!) before the next big task on the vineyard calendar – winter pruning. Grapegrowers spend their whole year nurturing fruit for the upcoming harvest – often stressing about what Mother Nature’s likely to dole out next – so it’s the one time of year when the pressure is well and truly off.

For the vines, it’s time for a hard-earned drink. We don’t like to give the vines too much water in the lead-up to picking so we won’t dilute the flavours. When the fruit’s all picked it’s a great time to give them a good long soak before they’re off to bed for winter.

For the winemakers, it’s all about tasting – revisiting all the batches we made this year, assessing them and classifying them into their prospective blends. It’s also a chance to make final decisions about which wines will be put to oak, what type of oak we want to use (new vs old; French vs American etc) and how much. And any other fine-tuning that’s needed as the wines finish their secondary (malo-lactic) fermentation.

For the wines, well once we’ve made any final adjustments, it’s off to bed for them too – all packed away in tanks or barrels for their beauty sleep. A good rest while they work their maturation magic, ready for Angel enjoyment in a year or two’s time.