Newsletter - NOVEMBER 2010
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Dear Savour Life Wine Club Member,

SUMMER Tasting Pack

Many thanks for your support over the past year and a warm welcome to all the new Members who have joined the Savour Life Club over the last 6 months. Our membership continues to expand which gives us a great feeling as we are able to supply a range of wines which are being enjoyed. One of the highlights in September for us and many Members was our Springtime Budburst luncheon held at our winery in conjunction with the Slow Food Hunter Group. This function brought together many aspects of our mission to provide Biodynamic wines which support the sustainability goals and compliment the enjoyment of local fresh produce with like minded people.

This pack is for those members who receive the November tasting pack. The mixed pack includes 3 white and 3 red wines. In the white range we have included one bottle of our Semillon 2010 and 2 bottles of our Verdelho 2010. These wines are both organically grown from the Vercoe’s vineyard which has joined our certification. The Semillon is not too austere and has lovely citrus characters and will be good drinking over the next few years. We would hope to re-release this wine after about 5 years. The Verdelho has been received very well by our cellar door visitors and has an uplifted bouquet of peaches and berries which goes very well with spicy asian-inspired food.

For the reds we have provided a range of current release wines which include Thomas Shiraz 08, Matthew Merlot 09 and the new Cabernet Sauvignon 09. The Shiraz is very much a summer style being medium bodied with light tannins and plenty of berry fruit characters. The Merlot is definitely our flagship wine at this point and is drinking really well with a little dryness up front and good clean length on the palate. The Cabernet Sauvignon has some lifted berry flavours and will improve in complexity with some further bottle maturation.

We continue with our resolve to provide you with a range of superb wines which have low sulphur (preservative 220) levels and are environmentally friendly, natural wines. In this way we are contributing to both your and the planets health!! ENJOY

We hope you enjoy these environmentally friendly wines.

BIODYNAMIC CERTIFICATION 10281BD
Biodynamic Certification - 10281BD We have again been audited by the ACO for the continuation of this program and we expect to get a clean slate so that we can move forward with our compliance. We anticipate having the winery certified in time for next vintage.

Vintage 2010 & Outlook for 2011

As previously advised the red wines, still in barrels, are looking good from last vintage and we are hopeful of releasing some Reserve wines again similar in quality to our 2006 and 2007 Thomas Shiraz Reserves. We have been enjoying a very mild spring with the recent rains coming just in time as the vineyards were starting to need irrigation. The vines are all looking very content with a very good level of fruit development. However it is early days and we have a long way to go before we harvest these grapes. It is not a good season until the grapes are in the tank!

Natural Winemaking
We are striving towards innovative, not alternative, wine making in capturing the life energy from the Biodynamic grapes. We are using the yeast from the vineyard for the fermentation wherever possible and hence minimising the amount of sulphur used in the winemaking process. This allows the wine to truly reflect the terroir (climate, soils and culture) of our vineyards and not just be another industrialised wine without a sense of place.

Garlic 2010
After last year’s initial successful foray into growing and selling this much used plant we have planted a commercial area with the Italian purple (rocambole) variety. The driving force for this diversification from grapes was the non availability of good quality, fresh, organic/biodynamic Australian grown product. Instead the supermarkets were peddling bleached, fumigated, irradiated, tasteless garlic varieties from third world communities grown with toxic pesticides and herbicides. We need to fight back with local certified organic produce! How on EARTH can you resist our offer...

We expect to harvest this garlic around mid to end November with the garlic bulbs being ready to dispatch a few weeks later. We have included a brochure for you to fill-in and send back or pass on to a friend, so that you will get preferential supply as we expect to sell out quite quickly. Or email direct to garlic@macquariedale.com.au to be included on our Garlic database. Minimum purchase – for mailing direct to you - is 1 kg @ $40 per kg, freight free to Sydney. If this feels too much just share with a friend – we would anticipate the garlic to last at least 3 months when stored correctly in a dark place, with a constant temperature with some air movement around the bulb. It also best not to peel off any of the outer leaves/sheath before use unless you are in an area of high humidity.