Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a wonderful and merry Christmas and festive season!

Be safe, play fair (or cheat well)!

Love from everyone here at Gryphonwood Vineyards!

One Bunch Pinot 2010 is now available!

To celebrate the release of our 2010 Pinot Noir, and to offer a little Christmas cheer, we are running a promotion with Plumm REDb glasses!

Every bottle of our 2010 Pinot Noir purchased through our website, or directly from us, up until the 6th of January will gain you an entry into the draw for a four glass box of Plumm REDb glasses (worth $125) - perfect for enjoying Pinot Noir. 

Purchasing a case of wine will reward you with double the entries (24 for the case!).

We will draw the winner of our OBP2010 release competition on Saturday, January 7th - winner will be published here, on our Facebook page and contacted directly.

(competition offered in good faith; results are final and will not be negotiated. Postage is included. Any questions, just ask!)

Cheers!

Limited Stock of 2009 Pinot!

Aside a small allocation held for February's Launceston Festivale, our One Bunch Pinot 2009 is down to its last few cases!

With this month's release of the 2010 vintage, the timing is pretty good!

If you would like a last bottle or two before it's gone, get in touch with us or go to the website!

Good Wine Guide 2012 #2

Part 2 of our reviews in the new 2012 edition of The SMH & The Age Good Wine Guide, by Nick Stock.

2009 One Bunch Pinot $23
Given the good value tick, score of 90 points.

"A juicy, youthful pinot nose, with plenty of bright, ripe mixed-berry and cherry fruits, some baking spices and gentle cedary oak. Quite silky tannins, forward mixed-berry flavour and supple, curvy shape through the middle. Supple cherry fruits and light musk through the finish. Made for goodtime drinking."
- quoted from The SMH & The Age Good Wine Guide 2012, Nick Stock.


These reviews are also on our website!

Good Wine Guide 2012 #1

The 2012 edition of The SMH & The Age Good Wine Guide, by Nick Stock, has hit the shelves. Have to say we were quite pleased with the results!

2010 One Bunch Pinot $25
Given the good value tick,  and a score of 91 points.
"The same juicy and playful style as the 2009 wine here. This has nicely ripened cherry and mulberry fruit aromas, some redder fruits too, and a lick of spice. The palate's mapped out with playfully chewy tannins, offering juicy, robust summer berry and plum-fruit flavours, and zesty acid crunch to close."
- quoted from The SMH & The Age Good Wine Guide 2012, Nick Stock.


As a side note, we are listed in the winery directory as Gryphonwood Vineyards, whilst the wines are listed in the main body as 2009 & 2010 One Bunch Pinot Noir. Of course, we are one and the same!

IT'S AWAY!!!!!

Season 2012 is on the way!!

Local worker

One of our locals...happy to work for food

Festivale 2012

Gryphonwood is going to Launceston's Festivale in 2012!

Festivale is the Tasmanian north's premier Wine and food festivale, and will see tens of thousands of festival goers enjoy the local food, drinks and entertainment, all set in the stunning Launceston City Park.

Stay tuned for more info!

One Bunch Pinot 2010 Update

We popped a bottle of 2010 Pinot this weekend, just to see how it was travelling. I think we are on track for a mid/late Spring release!  The wine still has a few edges to it, which should at least start rounding off by then, but with a decant, the 2010 smartened up nicely!

Of course being a Tassie wine, theres's plenty of fruit, but I was interested to pick up a bit of bacon in there as well. I hope the gamey, funky character carries through with time.

The wine definitely appreciated being run through a Vinturi. Similarly, we left half the bottle to try the following night, and again this evening, and it has carried itself well. I think decanting the 2010 for up to an hour before drinking will pay dividends.

It will definitely work in restaurants as a 'by the glass' wine.

Grace's 6th Birthday!

And what a day for the adults it was! I can't remember what happened as far as party things go, but for the mums and dads a nice local cheese platter went really well with a raft of wines -

Tamar Ridge 2006 Kayena Vineyard Riesling - oh the kerosene characters! divine...

Holyman 2003 Chardonnay - like the Riesling, had lovely age character. Both these wine still have lovely acid and were by no means done! They would have held on for a good while yet.

Two bottles of Heathcote Estate 2008 Shiraz - Both lovely and still young. The second bottle we put through a Vinturi Aerator and it made such a difference!

Plantagenet 2007 Shiraz - again, the vinturi added an extra thrill to an already enjoyable drop.

Yep, the way birthday parties should be!

Pruning is on the go...slowly...

Well, I started pruning the top Pinot block last week, and I have to admit it has been very slow going. Now four months out from surgery, my shoulder can only take so much of the repetitive (and jarring) snipping. I am managing about a row to a row and a half, before I have to stop and take a break.

Luckily, it's cold enough to make the coffee breaks all the more enjoyable!

Cycle Sri Lanka 2011

We are happy to be able to donate wine to Daniel Harris'  fundraising efforts for Diabetes Tasmania. He is taking part in Cycle Sri Lanka 2011 - a challenging 12 day ride through Sri Lanka to help Diabetes research.

Darren is gathering wines from different producers around Launceston and the Tamar Valley, to raffle them off as a pretty impressive pack!

Diabetes is one of the two issues close to our family's hearts, as very close friends of ours struggle with this disease daily (of course those that know our boy Harry know our fight against childhood Leukaemia).

Good luck Darren; ride well!

Surprise guests in the country

Being out in the country, every now and then we get a surprise visitor on the verandah, like we did last night!

Whilst enjoying the very watchable The Adjustment Bureau, Mel and I were surprised by an energetic banging at the french doors on verandah. I went over and parted the curtains, expecting to find our two young cats have a boisterous beatup on the doorstep.

Instead, to my surprise, I came nearly eye to eye with a possum, halfway up the door with claws dug deep into my nice woodwork! The expression in his eyes match my own - "Oh! Didn't expect to see you there!"
He was a big boy, easily the size of both the cats together. Geronimo, the smaller cat, was out of bed and possibly was the cause of the possum deciding to climb my door. Stilton, the larger cat was in bed watching the beast, his face saying "I ain't going near it!!" In the light, it seemed Geronimo was having second thoughts about the possum as well, as he demonstrated when the possum decided he'd seen enough of me, and jumped down next to him. Ohh...those claws...

Anyway, the bugger decided enough was enough, and off he went over the side of the verandah. Merlot the dog was most upset at not being able to join in, but as the pic below shows, I would have had to take him to the vets next day for stitches.

Photo courtesy of a most amusing article: http://www.squidoo.com/the-lost-cat

It's amazing that I get the wildlife up on the porch. It's around four feet above the ground at this end, but that hasn't stopped the possums (fair enough), wallabies (for my international friends, these are small cousins of kangaroos) and even the damn sheep when they jailbreak, from pressing their wet noses on my nice windows!

Reviewed in the Epicure

OBP2009 received a rather nice review in The Age's Epicure, on Tuesday the 14th!

Thanks to Michele Round at Launceston's Pinot Shop for organising it!

OBP2009

A friend recently pointed out to me that I didn't properly clarify how much help our winemaker, Guy Wagner, was to us in getting our label off the ground. Not only did he source fruit for us for cover our lost 2010 vintage, he gave us an allocation of his own 2009 Pinot Noir to sell under our label.

It is important that I acknowledge this, as it finally got us off the ground and moving to the next stage in our wine business.

A great video on glassware

The guys at Spitbucket have posted a fantastic video on the impact of glassware on your wine:

How Does Your Glass Affect the Taste and Smell of Your Wine Episode

This video uses Riedel glasses to demonstrate the impact of quality wine glasses. I would also endorse Plumm glassware to do the job.

Check out the Eve decanter by Riedel at the end...what a stunner! If you want one, I promise I won't ask full retail for it!

Confirmed for 2011!

It's now confirmed - Gryphonwood will be offering a Chardonnay from the 2011 vintage. Guy Wagner at Bass Fine Wines has secured some good fruit for us, and it is now fermenting! Of course, we will also have 2011 Pinot Noir.

I am looking forward to expanding our range...now we have to think of white wine labels!

Sombre signs for 2011

Indicators around Northern Tasmania are pointing to a rough end to the 2011 vintage. Many producers are facing yield losses and the possibility of not picking at all! The cool season has pushed back ripening into dangerous waters, as canopies begin to senesce and leaves fall. Add to that cooler temperatures and the ever present threat of further rain.

Looking in the winery, there are numbers of producers having to sacrifice ideal sugar levels to secure a crop. Some are hoping that berry shrivel will help them get to the necessary level of sugar to make a wine. Others still have decided that they will achieve neither the sugar level or the quality of fruit to warrant harvesting their crop.

A hard year for all, it seems....

A new wine community!

Spitbucket - the community for all things wine

I stumbled across a new Australian online wine community - Spitbucket!

This is pretty exciting, as I have oft looked at communities on the web that revolve around wine, and they are almost exclusively American, with very little content or relevance to Australians and our wine industry.

I really hope this community (and its upcoming forum) thrives!

Check it out, support it, and I'll see you there.

Pinot Unearthed's Sydney dinner a great success!

The guys at Pinot Unearthed hosted their Tassie Pinot Dinner at Fix St James in Sydney this week, and by all accounts so far it was a booming success! The wines were a hit.

OBP2009 tasted well - I heard this from a new and unusual source (for me): tweets!
One of the night's commentators had a tweet link that I thought I would follow (like a trail of bread crumbs). Little did I know that a group of diners at the event were tweeting their way through each wine!

There was a whole sublayer of conversation going on under the table and in peoples' laps...
had I been there, I am sure I would have been shaking my head at these people playing with phones in the middle of a dinner function, despite the fact they were actually saying nice things about our wine!

The irony, eh?

Pure South takes us on!

We are really excited to have the excellent Pure South Restaurant, in Melbourne's Southbank district, take OBP2009 on board!

It was at Pure South that our wine featured in Pinot Unearthed's Pure Tassie wine dinner. Whilst the night was a massive success, Pure South's food was a stand out part of the evening, with reports of the event all raving about their menu.

So, it is extremely pleasing for us to now be involved with Pure South, where our ventures into the greater winosphere first launched.

The curious effect of position...

When I say position, I do not mean prime real estate, global marketing position, financial position or any other similar position of note.

Rather, I refer to the much more interesting position of where our OBP2009 has been sitting in the warehouse! Over summer, our collections of wine from Guy Wagner's have been from pallets sitting on Bass Fine Wine's main concrete floor - shaded and kept at a moderately cool temperature thanks to the slab's thermal mass.

Our last wine collection, however, came for Guy's mezzanine level, a good three to four metres overhead and close to the ceiling. Temperatures up here have been a good couple of degrees warmer over summer.

The difference in the wines? Quite a bit! The mezzanine level wine has progressed a good three to six months beyond the same wine that has been stored on the concrete. Without doubt, it is still a young wine; however, the nose is more pronounced and the flavours much fuller.  The more developed wine is considerable more interesting, which is rather exciting really.

OBP2009 at Remi de Provence

We very are excited to see our Pinot being picked up by Remi de Provence in Hobart! Remi's establishment is impressive, with wine bar, a fantastic wine centre and the lovely bistro. Remi de Provence specialises in authentic French cuisine.

I have been looking forward to seeing One Bunch Pinot in restaurants, bistros and cafes, as I think the wine such a complement to fine food. We will be working hard to see OBP onto wine lists around the country.

If you visit Remi's, try a glass of our wine and let us know how you go!

OBP2010 is bottled!

Our 2010 is finally in the bottle! We tried it recently and it is a little fuller, a little spicier than the '09, which makes me happy indeed. Here's hoping it delivers same on the other side of bottle shock. It will not be approachable for a number of months yet.

This makes me wonder, how do such young wines cope in a wine show? The International Cool Climate Wine Show is coming up, and has a field especially for the 2010 vintage. Do the judges take into consideration that these wines are barely through bottling? Is it a two or three horse race between those wines that get through bottle shock earlier than the rest of the pack? We shall enter the show and find out!

Pinot Unearthed's Tassie Dinner write up #1

We are extremely excited here at the vineyard to hear that our OBP2009 was well received at the Melbourne dinner hosted by the team at Pinot Unearthed! Their review of the evening has been posted on their blog.

Due to the state of my shoulder I was unable to travel up to Melbourne for the evening. I have to admit that I am more than a little disappointed about this, especially after reading about the menu Pure South matched to the wines. Mouthwateringly good!

The Peppermint Bay Cruise dinner is coming up early next month (April 7th), and Gryphonwood's OBP2009 will again be featured. This will be superb, as the dinner will be enjoyed on a cruise from Hobart aboard the Peppermint Bay II! Tickets are available here!

It doesn't end there...a third dinner has been announced for Sydney! This time, the event will be at  Fix St James. Gryphonwood is happy to have our wine included - check here for details of the dinner and ticket info.

Cheers!

Recovery Mode...

I am writing this with only my left hand, and it is sooo frustrating...

Surgery is done, and my right wing is clipped and tucked in a sling for at least the next month. All the 2011 fruit is now on the ground...all those little bunches of small berries. We tried a few of the riper berries as we snipped, and they had a good flavour.

Shame they all had to go on the ground.

A very sad decision.

It was with heavy hearts, a lot of thought and talks today that Mel and I decided to pull the pin on vintage 2011. This week I will start cutting the bunches off our vines and drop them.

Its been a hard season already, due to the very cold and wet conditions Australia is experiencing. I think we can all attest to that. What it means for the vines is that they are struggling to ripen fruit, and it has become a race to get them to a useable maturity before we run out of growing season. It was looking tight until I got some hard news this morning.

I took a good spill at the start of the month and dislocated my shoulder (something I have dealt with for nearly two decades now), however this time round, I shattered my shoulder socket - the socket has broken open. The only way to rectify it is with open surgery, to rebreak it and then screw the bones back together correctly.

The end effect is 6 weeks of immobility and then physio...no driving tractors, no vineyard maintenance, nothing. I am out of commission for the rest of this season.

So the best course is to give the vines the balance of this season to put on condition.

'Not happy Jan!'

A Pleasant Surprise!

I mentioned the other day One Bunch Pinot received a good review from the Pinot unearthed team: 

One Bunch Pinot Noir, 2009

Region:

Tasmania Pipers River & North East

Date Tasted:10/12/2010

Drink until: 2014

RATING:

16.25

Ben Edwards:17.5 Bright colour; quite a hi-toned bouquet, showing vibrant almost sour cherry aromas; the palate is also crunchy and driven by acid and chewy tannins, drawing out the finish to a quite savoury and minerally conclusion; long and with latent power taking time to unravel.

Chris Crawford:15.5 Medium to dark purple, good clarity; brightly scented macerated plums with subtle herbal undertones; simple crunchy red fruits add to its compact core; the tannins are a little course leaving a hard, grainy finish; medium length; plenty of appeal.

Dan Sims:15.5 Mid red in colour; dark macerated strawberry, wild raspberry fruit aromas and perhaps lacking a little concentration and fruit weight to back up the grippy tannic structure that surrounds the wine; whilst in that lighter bodied style, it has some charming qualities, though lacks that extra dimension.

Quoted from Pinot Unearthed 2009 TASMANIAN PINOT NOIR COMPLETE

   FEBRUARY 15TH 2011, ISSUE NUMBER 4, available as a download from their site.

All in all, a favourable result - one we are happy with...as a starting point!

However, we were most pleasantly surprised to be invited by Pinot Unearthed to participate in their Pure Tassie Pinot dinners, to be held at Pure South Restaurant in South Bank, Melbourne, and the stunning Peppermint Bay, south of Hobart. Both events will be held in March (the 9th in Melbourne; the 31st at Peppermint Bay).

The aim for these dinners is to showcase the variety and styles of Tassie Pinot. Of all the wines tasted, we are chuffed to be one of the twelve selected!

Tickets are available here. Hope we see you there!

The Intricacies of Wine Shows

Well, we recently had our first exposure to entering a wine show, and the little 'quirks' of the wine judging system.

Our One Bunch Pinot 2009 was entered in the 2011 Tasmanian Wine Show, with interesting results...
Firstly, I need to point out that this post is not an exercise in thumb-sucking, nor is it intended as a rant about wine shows. It is merely an observation that we are all indeed human.

OBP2009 was tasted at number four in its class. We soon found out the Chairman's Selection wine and gold medal winner was number three in that line up. What neither show organisers or myself knew, was the same wine as our OBP2009 had been placed in the line up as wine number two!

I must clarify this point - it is common knowledge that our 2009 and 2010 vintages were lost. Our winemaker, as well as sourcing fruit for us to replace 2010, kindly offered us some of his own 2009 wine (already released under his own label), to get our label off the ground. I did not think to ask him if he was showing his wine in the 2010 wine show, which of course he would be doing. Thus, the same wine was shown twice.

The outcome?
Wine number two was awarded a high silver by the three judges.  One Judge scored it a gold, with the average score bringing down just under the 18.5 points from 20 needed for that golden sticker on your bottle. I have to say this is a result to be pleased with!

Wine number three, the Hazards Ale Trophy winner, was Chairman's Selection for the show and a gold medal winner.

Wine number four averaged 15 points, half a point short of a bronze medal. Bupkis.

This happened recently with a Pinot Noir that won Best Pinot Noir in Show trophy in Perth, 2010 (plus 3 gold medals in the same year), only to pick up a bronze at the Hobart Wine Show. Whilst terribly disappointing, it can be understood how different judges, on different days, can score a wine quite differently.

However, to score the same wine so markedly different within one show, within two bottles of each other, is poignant. Perhaps it all comes down to timing - point number one being don't get judged after a trophy winner! (Haha! Ok ok...there's no helping that one...).

Perhaps our wine shows are too fast paced? If judges are plowing through hundreds of wines in a day, perhaps pallet fatigue is going to play a part (one would not think it would hit as early as wine four, however). Secondly, to get through that many wines in a day, I imagine one must judge at a fairly speedy pace. If a wine is judged a high silver, then nothing after a trophy winner, are judges' pallets being cleansed/rested sufficiently between tastings?

Again I must stress that I am not spitting the dummy here - for I know that in another wine show, we may receive a silver, maybe a gold. Indeed, we just received some great scores from the boys at Pinot Unearthed - a high silver and a couple of bronze.

As the number of wines at each show grows, and the sphere of influence that medals, trophies and wine writers (oft present as show judges) have over the buying public, I think it is important to remember the human element of wine shows. Results are variable. Results are inconsistent. One can see wines highly praised in wine books, then receive nothing from the same writer in the next wine show.

There can be no substitute to trying a wine yourself, and deciding if you like it, or not.

Our First Review!

We all experience the pangs of nervousness when we put ourselves out there...those quirky moments as we wait on the opinions of peers as they assess our efforts. Tis a fact of life.

So, it was a pleasant moment when Mel and I read our first review of One Bunch Pinot. Winsor Dobbin is a wine writer with a regular column in The Sunday Examiner, as well as a freelance writer for a number of other publications. Here is his blog: http://www.winsorschoice.blogspot.com/

In early January, our wine graced the Sunday Examiner's pages:

One Bunch 2009 Pinot Noir $23

It's always exciting to see the launch of a new Tasmanian label, particularly one with as much promise as this; the first release from Gryphonwood Vineyards, whose vines are at Underwood in the Pipers River region. The wine gets is name because a poor crop meant "just one bunch" of fruit came through in 2009. The owners called on consultant winemaker Guy Wagner to create a blend and this shows immense promise. There's a good balance between fruit and savoury characters and the wine, slightly spritzy on opening, gets better and better as it opens up. It was excellent after two days – and very food friendly. A label to look out for.
Winsor Dobbin
Sunday Examiner, 9th January 2011

So thanks to Winsor for his words, and here's hoping a few more like them come our way!
Cheers,
Ben

Welcome to Gryphonwood's Blog!

Does the world need another wine blog? Probably not...
Nevertheless, here we are!


In a world of big wine companies, shifting markets and an industry under intense pressure, I think it's important to look at the smaller stuff - the small end of the trade (and it doesn't get much smaller than Tasmania!). This is still the realm of family owned businesses, where a handful of people do everything in the vineyard, and often the winery as well. This is where the heart and soul of wine is; the romance we feel about wine.


With this blog, Mel and I invite you to share with us the newest stage of our venture - coming to market with our wine!


It has taken what seems an age to get to this point...through slow growing vines in Tassie's cool conditions and monster frosts wiping out a hectare of baby vines, to co-ordinated tactical incursions by possums that consumed our vine nursery, to wasps that flew in and carried away an entire vintage. We finally have a label on the market!


Cheers!
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