The Hunter Valley is on a high!

After the rainfall of the past 18 months everything is green and vibrant and the valley looks fantastic; as good as we have ever seen it!

The vineyards have all kicked away with excellent Spring growth with rain seeming to arrive just as it is needed.

At Mistletoe,as part of our constant search for quality we pruned the vineyard back extremely hard this Winter to ensure we harvest the best quality fruit we can.

The vines have responded magnificently and are covered in the new Spring growth.

Our pre-vintage maintenance of the vineyards is at its peak at the moment with the vines having flowered, the fruit having set and its journey to vintage underway.

It has been a cool start to Spring with only two reasonably hot days so far and lovely cool nights with relatively low humidity.

It is amazing how the gardens have been transformed with the rain we have had over the past 18 months. Trees that have grown very little over the last 5 years have doubled in size in that 18 month period and are providing lovely shade to the Cellar door building and our home.

As we move into December we commence our major pre-vintage overhaul of the winery and all the machinery in preparation for harvest.

We believe vintage will not commence until February 2009 due to the cool Spring and consequent late budburst of the vines.

This is much later than the last 4 or 5 years and is tending back to the dates that used to be regarded as the normal start of vintage.

At this time all looks very good but we won’t rest until all the grapes are safely in the winery.

An exciting time of year!