From the Winery June 2009….

Winter is now upon us in the Barossa and the cold and frosty nights are not far away.  It’s a great time to kick back with a great glass of red and chat about the winery happenings in front of the open fire in Cellar Door.   Currently all of our reds have gone through malolactic fermentation and have had their first racking out of barrel.   The Cab and Merlot look to be of very high quality at this early stage, this is despite the heat wave of February.  All other batches are of good quality and time will tell as to what will be the pick of the vintage!

We’ve bottled our first white for the year, ‘Ross Semillon 2009′, it is to be the first release of a straight Semillon since the 03 vintage.   The quality and characteristics of the wine were too good to blend - an excellent example of Barossa Semillon with zippy acidity and amazing length on the pallet!

Our 2008 reds are maturing nicely in barrels.  I will start looking at blending options in August and September and all final blends will be bottled by the end of the year.  Of course before deciding the final blends I will taste each barrel, this usually takes about two weeks.

Tough job this winemaking, tasting wine all day!  But seriously it’s a very important, challenging and rewarding process as each barrel contains it’s own unique flavours and qualities.   Drop by Cellar Door during winter to catch all the events happening at Ross Estate.  I’ll be pouring wines on the 28th of June for the Barossa At Home event.  We also have the South Australia Living Arts Display ‘SALA” in August and of course the Barossa Gourmet Weekend is coming up in late August and promises to be better than the last…See you here!!

Alex Peel - Winemaker