Now that our deck is up and running, we have decided to provide our wonderful visitors with some excellent entertainment . On March 9 and March 23, our friend George will be entertaining all of our cellar door visitors with “songs of back then”.

George will be visiting the cellar door from 2:00pm to 6:00pm on Saturday, March 9 and Saturday, March 23. There will be wine and a delicious selection of platters available throughout the day – so why not come visit us (and George!) and take a Saturday afternoon off? You can check out our full menu here, just in case you’re interested in what yummy food we have on offer.

No bookings are required, just show up to our cellar door. Our address is 16 Ingram Road, Coldstream. If you have any queries, we can be reached on 03 9739 1573.

WHY OAK ?

A century old tradition remains a standard practice for making many fines wines.  The oak allows slow movement of oxygen allowing a very slow maturation and development of the wine within.  The oak also contributes particular tannins and flavours which interact with the wine producing more complex characters.

WHERE DOES OAK COME FROM?

Largely, oak trees used for wine barrels are grown in France or the USA and only a selected species – white oak – is suitable for barrels.  The timber must meet 2 basis criteria:

* the timber must not be porous

* the flavours that the timber imparts must taste good ~ Jarrah is not porous but unlike oak it tastes lousy!

Helen’s Hill uses only French oak in its wine making process as it has tighter grains than American oak and its flavours are more subtle and elegant, imparting savoury, spicy and sometimes citrus characters.

COOPERAGE

This is the time honoured craft of making barrels and the craftsman is known as the cooper.

Like the viticulturist and the winemaker the cooper’s handling of the oak will impact on the wines end result.

As you look into the barrel hall you will note the different cooperages represented – our winemaker chooses particular cooper for a particular wine style.

TOAST LEVEL

“Toasting” is a process of darkening the inside of the barrel with an open flame.  The winemaker will select a level of toasting – light, medium or heavy – to produce a certain style of wine.

SIZE

Barriques are the barrels used for wine production here at Helen’s Hill.

These can then be further distinguished as :

Burgundy (228 litre and “fatter) or

Bordeaux (225 litre and “longer and thinner”)

The burgundy barrel is designed to allow the lees to settle to the bottom of the barrel during the wine making process.

These 2 barrels are the most common sizes in our barrel hall and will be chosen by the winemaker depending on the style of wine and level of oak flavours and tannins to be imparted into the developing wine.

The smaller the barrel the greater the oak influence on the wine.

70% of the oak influence is imparted into the wine in the first year of a barrels use. By the 3^rd year most barrels are no longer useful in white wine production but may be used for a further 2 years in red wine production and storage.

Do you need any gift ideas for the upcoming holiday season? If you’re stuck for present ideas, it might be worthwhile dropping by our cellar door.

Our Christmas hampers are now available, along with a variety of other stocking fillers. We have two hampers available this year: our Ingram Road Hamper, and our Helen’s Hill Hamper. Yum! These hampers are available at the cellar door until we sell out.

The Ingram Road Hamper contains:
- 1 x bottle of Ingram Rd 2010 Chardonnay
- 1 x bottle of Ingram Rd 2011 Pinot Noir
- 1 x bottle of Helen’s Hill 2010 Bortytis Sauvignon Blanc
- 1 x bottle of Pukara Estate balsamic vinegar
- 1 x jar of BioGrape paste
- 1 x jar of Nicolas Estate olives
- 1 x packet Gourmet Morsels Dukkah
- 1 x packet of Ricci’s Biccis

Price $100

The Helen’s Hill Hamper contains:
- 1 x bottle of Helen’s Hill 2012 Chardonnay
- 1 x bottle of Helen’s Hill 2008 Pinot Noir
- 1 x bottle of Helen’s Hill 2010 Bortytis Sauvignon Blanc
- 1 x bottle of Pukara Estate balsamic vinegar
- 1 x jar of BioGrape paste
- 1 x jar of Nicolas Estate olives
- 1 x packet Gourmet Morsels Dukkah
- 1 x packet of Ricci’s Biccis

Price $125

These hampers are great value, and we only have a limited amount – so get in quickly to avoid disappointment. On top of our hampers, we also have a bunch of other gifts that are perfect for the wine and food lover in your life:

- Our cheese boards sell for between $50 – $100 each, and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They can be teamed with a number of our cheeses, pastes and biscuits – all ready to go!

- We have gorgeous wine bottle holders for as little as $10, and can easily be accompanied by a bottle of our wine to match.

- If you have a dog lover in your life, we may have the perfect present. We currently stock the ‘Wine Dogs of Australia, Vol 3′ book. Additionally, we also have a ‘Winery Dogs’ poster available. Separately, these items are $35 and $20 – however, you can purchase both for only $40.

- Finally, we also have the latest ‘Produce to Platter’ book available, if you require an extra stocking filler!

Keep in mind that our wines are still on special this month.  If you buy one bottle of Roma’s Grace 2007 Blanc de Noir for $50, you will receive one bottle of the Ingram Rd NV Brut (normally $20) for free.  All of these products mentioned above are available in our cellar door, and just waiting to be swept up by the perfect Santa and delivered to a wine and food lover’s stocking!
Wishing you a safe and happy holiday season,

The team at Helen’s Hill

The 2012 vintage saw Helen’s Hill become the proud owners of a wonderful new multi-functional tractor. Today saw its inaugural journey into the vineyard with the spray attachment in place.

We are excited by the many savings this new equipment brings to Helen’s Hill, both environmentally and economically. Because the spray heads are so targeted and enclosed within the machine, much less spray in required and there is no escape into the environment. A ‘drip’ tray at the bottom reticulates any run off and allows this to then be reapplied, again and again.

This reticulation keeps the tractor operator in the vineyard longer – so we’re also reducing diesel use, as our tractor drivers don’t have to return to the shed to refill… how cool is that! Time is saved, water is saved… the list goes on! Look out for this machine when you next visit us – truly a masterpiece of technology.

Wineries order their oak barrels at the end of October/start of November every year, in anticipation of the requirements for the upcoming vintage.

For the vineyard this requires a lot of work, as the winery relies on accurate crop estimates. Sadly, this is easier said than done.

For every variety (and clone within that variety) between 50 – 100 random vines are selected and the “bunches” on that vine are counted, so we can average out the amount of “bunches” per block. Counting the bunches is a long and tedious process, as the bunches are still very small (see the image on the right for examples).

That figure is then multiplied by the “estimated” (based on historical data) bunch weight, multiplied by the area of vines – finally, we arrive at the tonnes per hectare yield. Sadly, many things between October and March can alter crop yield, but last year we were within 8% – something we were very proud of!

I consider the vineyard an overgrown garden and with the passing of winter the spring chores are upon us.  Pest monitoring begins again and this year one of the early threats to the vines new spring growth is SNAILS.

So, Ascargatoire, a rout or a walk anyone?   (Collective noun for snails). Classified as molluscs, snails have an outer shell of calcium carbonate.  They are hermaphrodites and take about 2 years to be mature for reproduction. They have no mating call as they cannot hear so use touch as a way of courting. Both snails will conceive approximately 100 eggs which they deposit into moist soil. In the right conditions this can occur monthly!   The eggs hatch after approximately 1 month and most of the young are lost to the elements or predators, but, if they survive to adulthood they can live as long as 15 years.

Snails are herbivores and will consume garden crops and the tender young buds/shoots on our vines. The higher rainfalls over recent years have seen an explosion in snail and slug numbers in the vineyard. With the coming of spring and new leaves now beginning to burst on the vines we are walking every row and brushing the snails and slugs to the ground before they can completely demolish the new seasons growth, and with it our up coming vintage.

For those who visit in the next few months you may notice that we have cut the head off the vines just below the restaurant (out the front of the workshed). We are going to graft this small section across from Shiraz to Pinot Noir. Growing grapes is all about terrior (the landscape surrounding the vines) and after 15 vintages we have to admit that we got that section wrong. Probably shouldn’t have been so lazy and grafted this section a number of years ago but the long drought from ’03 to ’09 lulled us into a false sense of security as the site really doesn’t suit the Shiraz variety. It is a steep east facing slope at the bottom of the hill, so it is shaded from the hot afternoon sun and generally gets more than its more than fair share of water, not a great combination for a variety that loves it hot and dry.

Pinot Noir on the other will be extremely well suited to this small section of vineyard for all of the reasons that Shiraz is not. The grafting process will take 2-3 years to bear fruit but in the long run we figure the benefits more than outweigh the cost (and work).