Yarra Valley

From Grape 🍇 to your mouth 🍷 it takes 3 years to prepare this tasty beverage!
Today we share the Season Recap with a 🎥 7min highlight real!

A short long history. From the Pioneers in the 1800’s to those who rejuvenated the Yarra Valley in the 1960’s and the new wave from the 1990’s to today, the Yarra Valley is making the best wines it has ever made.

It’s a busy day in the Tiny Winery today! It’s 449 days since our beautiful Shiraz arrived in the winery.
Blending time … mostly!

The 2015 Wine Decoded ‘Bathtub’ Cabernet Sauvignon!
Just a little bit excited 😉

Our whole bunch Shiraz ferment is starting to kick. Now it’s time to think about fermentation temperature & ongoing tannin management

It’s school holidays and that can mean only one thing, time to put the kids to work stomping grapes!

All quiet in the Wine Decoded Tiny Winery. Fermentation hasn’t started yet.

The Great Challenge … Finding the Perfect Time to Pick Your Grapes!

Hitting the Vineyards to Find Out Just What it Takes to Grow a Yummy Grape at the very site Wine Decoded sources it’s fruit from for the Bathtub Winemaking Project!

After a false start, the WINE DECODED Bathtub Winemaking Project 2016 is GO!
Big Shout Out to Dylan McMahon for helping us find some yummy fruit to play with!
Yesterday we sampled Shiraz from a beautiful vineyard in Seville East on the edge of Gruyere in the Yarra Valley.

The Wine Decoded Bathtub Winemaking Project Shiraz is in the house! Nothing Like a 38°C day to Shift 140 Buckets of Fruit into Bathtub Fermenters!
It’s crushing time!
Check out all the action as we crush our yummy fruit, transport it to Wine Decoded HQ and bucket it into our 3 bathtubs for fermentation!

We’re playing with Whole Bunch Shiraz this year
First time we’ve seen this fruit
Hope it gives us some beautiful perfume, fun texture & yumminess!

Checking the progress of the Whole Bunch Shiraz Ferment!
Time to taste all the different components, whole bunches, whole berries, crushed fruit & juice!
Then we’ll have a think about what we’ll do next!

Daily Rituals in the Wine Decoded Tiny Winery!
Always Tasting! Always Thinking!
Watch 2hrs of Action Condensed into a little over 4mins with an Explanation from our Chief Wine Hacker, Paul!

Stalks can impart an incredible spice into red wine adding intrigue!
They also add tannin, some times you want them in your wine, other times you need to remove them!
Watch as we remove stalks from our Yarra Valley Shiraz and explain what we were trying to achieve by using them!

Choosing when to press a red wine, separating all the liquids from the solids is one of the critical points in making any wine.
It marks the end of one phase and the beginning of the next in the development of the wine.

In the latest episode of the Bathtub Winemaking Project we talk Oak vs Tank.
How does the vessel you mature your wine in change it?
What are we looking for and trying to achieve?

In the latest episode of the Bathtub Winemaking Project we talk about Natural Sedimentation for unfiltered wine. What’s it all about? How does it work?

It’s time to Rack the Wine Decoded Bathtub Shiraz! Decanting it out of tank and barrel removing anything that has settled to the bottom and introduce a little bit of oxygen to help the wine develop.

The French use the term élévage with reference to both wine and children! It translates to “A good upbringing” or “Being well raised”.

The first and only press for Vintage 2015 is done and dusted! The WINE DECODED Bathtub Winemaking Cabernet was squished a few weeks ago, after 24 days on skins. The perfume and earthiness I was looking for have arrived. The texture has lengthened, developed beautifully and is looking good.

Cap is looking might close to going over this am! I wish my assistant winemaker wouldn’t splash whilst bathing in the wine! We’ve run a barrel of free run off for barrel fermentation with about 15% of the alcoholic fermentation to go. Post Fermentation Maceration Explained – Gotta Keep Pushing! Check out what happened from Day 11-14

Fermentation is winding down & it’s time to get our oak barrels ready to fill.
There’s nothing quite like the smell of a new French oak barrel.

We’re still focusing on tannin for the WINE DECODED Bathtub Winemaking Project. This time it’s all about giant teabags … full of stalks, not, tea! Just like the seeds stalks contain tannins, flavours and aromas that we want to guide and layer into the wine. Check the “teabags” and a detailed walk through steep the biggest teabag you’ll ever see in the video.

Today’s one of the peak days during fermentation. Where about half way through now. The yeast are moving fast, sugar is dropping quickly, heat is being generated and alcohol levels increasing. It’s time to focus on tannin. This video explores some of the tannin management I’m doing this year taking a look at skins, seeds and stalks.

The yeast are starting to get buggy moving! Flavours are looking good!

Beautiful day to pick our Cabernet for the WINE DECODED Bathtub Winemaking Project! We’ll be posting regular updates taking you through the winemaking process step by step for Vintage 2015.

Vintage is almost upon us! The first grapes for the WINE DECODED Bathtub Winemaking Project are about to be picked!

If swimming through a vat of vino isn’t on your bucket list, stop reading this now. Go and write it down … RIGHT NOW!

Take a moment, close your eyes and picture your dream winemaking gig!