2013 Wines have finally landed!

After a much extended delay, our new vintage 2013 wines are landing!

The 2013 Pinot Noir is in the same vein as the popular 2011, and as summer rolls on it will settle and starting opening up. A wine with lovely fruit and interesting oak - more complex than I expected!

The 2013 Chardonnay is exciting, subtly oaked, the wine is fruit driven, beautifully fresh and food friendly. That said, this baby will age beautifully and I can't wait to see how it develops! Good enough to make me think about entering a show...

The last of the 2013 gang is our first sparkling! We are still waiting for this one to come out of the winery, but we have high hopes for it. Of course, once it lands I can only sit and stare at it for at least four years...but I will fidget in anticipation, I promise you!


Try the 2013 Chard and Pinot this week on board the Spirit of Tasmania, or at Harvest Market!

Check out the Spirit's Flavours of Tassie infographic!

Tasmania Unbottled is here!

It is pretty exciting for Gryphonwood to finally be working more on the mainland!

As part of our efforts, we are attending Wine Tasmania's premier event - Tasmania Unbottled 2013! 

This came together fast and furiously in the past couple of weeks, and unfortunately it meant we were not able to make it to Brisbane this year...but we will make up for that next time around!

 We will be in both Sydney and Brisbane however! We would love to catch up with you and say hi, so check out the details below. The events and dinners surrounding the main tastings look awesome, so we will be definitely fully involved next year!

See you there!!!

Festivale 2013 is here!!! And Harvest has its FIRST birthday!

It's back!
Launceston's Festivale 2013 has arrived, and it is celebrating its 25th birthday!

Not only that, Harvest is Turning ONE!

This is also the official launch of our 2012 One Bunch Riesling!

To make the most of the event, we have put up some promotions to brighten everyone's day!

Every bottle of wine sold at Festivale or Harvest Market on Saturday will earn a ticket into a draw to win a 4-pack of Plumm Red or White glasses!

Every new Like we get on Facebook, and new follower on Twitter from the weekend will go in the draw for a bottle of 2012 Riesling! Of course, all our current buddies and followers are already in the draw!

On top of that, our 2010 Pinot noir and 2011 Chardonnay will both be available at 25% off through our website until the end of March!

We are at both Festivale (stall 23), and Harvest (our usual corner), so come and say hi to us!

Harvest Market Launches Christmas Wine Packs!

Launceston's Harvest Market is launching some Summer wine packs, and we are really thrilled to be included in them!

Winsor's Pick 6 Pack

This summer / Christmas pack includes a Sharmans' 2008 Sparkling and 2012 Sauvignon Blanc, a Humbug Reach 2009 Chardonnay, our One Bunch Chardonnay 2011, a Humbug Reach 2010 Pinot Noir and our gold medal One Bunch Pinot 2011.

Gold Medal 3 Pack

This three pack is exciting because Harvest's three wine producers all won gold medals over the previous few months! Sharmans' 2011 Pinot won a gold and a trophy at the International Cool Climate Wine Show in Mornington Peninsula, the same show where our One Bunch Pinot 2011 won a bronze. Our 2011 then won a gold medal, the only in its class, at Bathurst's National Cool Climate Wine Show. The sister wine to this one won a gold at the Hobart Wine Show under Guy Wagner's Bass Fine Wines label! The third wine is Humbug Reach's stunning 2011 Chardonnay - the only gold in it's class at the Hobart wine show.

We are all really proud of these wines, and I'm sure you'd find them a worthy Christmas to give someone...or give to yourself!

OBP2009 is BACK!

I dropped in to see our winemaker today, and was promptly led upstairs to the mezzanine storage area. In the rear corner he showed me a long lost and forgotten pallet of 2009 Pinot Noir! Nearly 50 cases of it!

SO! Gryphonwood's One Bunch Pinot 2009 is back; older and wiser than before!

Come and try it at Harvest Market in Launceston, or call us for a bottle!

Email here...

Last of the Festivale wine

With Festivale done, it's time to take stock of the wines we presented there.

2009 Pinot Noir is down to its last handful of cases. We will put this one away to allow age development and for use in some planned guided tastings and food matching events.

2010 Pinot Noir is plentiful and going strong! Still youthful, but developing nicely with being allowed to breathe, this wine has fruit like the 2009, but also Pinot's amazing funky/earthy characters. Comments such as savoury, mushroom and forest floor were tossed about by the crowd. It is youth still, but has a lot more going on than the 2009 did.

2011 Chardonnay - wild yeast batch. We had a small batch of chardonnay that came to Festivale with us as a bit of a one off. Its mild oak, savoury and leesy characters were nicely balanced by fresh citrus. This was a hit with people who don't normally enjoy a chardonnay. I have only 3 cases of this wine left.

Very soon, our standard 2011 Chardonnay will be available. It is a close cousin to the above wine, so stay tuned for further news of it!

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!

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.

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.

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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