first week at Mount Gambier
Hi there, we are in Mount gambier at the moment, to help with the harvest at Good intentions winery. We are learning a lot of interesting stuff. I hope you enjoy!
Our first week in Mount Gambier.
Day 30 - 31 - 32
Our first real day of work starts now, and the morning begins with de-suckering of the pinot noir vineyard, this means cutting of every shoot thats on the bottom stem of the vine, so the vine can give all his energy to the ones that produce grapes. A very nice but heavy job to do. We did this for some hours and went back to the winery after to do some cleaning. We are preparing for harvest, and one of the most important this for that is cleaning, making sure everything is good to go.
The next few days we did some more de-suckering, making sure it’s done before harvest, it took us a couple of days to finish it.
Day 33
This weekend we have a festival in Port Macdonnell, called bay side festival, this is a festival with lots of food and good drinks. We are hosting a wine bar with the Good Intentions wines, we enjoyed the festival. Had some pizza for dinner and made it an early night.
Day 34
Sunday, a easy day with not that much work to do. Cleaned up some more of the winery and the weather is great today so we are planning a nice beach day at Port Macdonnell. In South Australia it’s very normal to drive on the beaches with your 4 wheel drive, set up your space next to it and enjoy the sun, so as real Aussies we did this as well. The beaches are beautiful, the water is very cold but we enjoyed it with some beers and a good swim!
Day 35 - 36
Early mornings and going out to the Vineyard to do some more de-suckering, we are almost there! Chris hurt his back today so he is not in the best conditions, and had troubles with walking. After the de-suckering, i did some weeding in the little nursery where they grow new small vines, and because they’re not strong enough yet we need to make life as easy as possible for them. To give them all the energy they need to grow.
The team we work in at the winery is small but amazing, wonderful people who have a passion for wine and drinking it ofcourse. every day we have lunch and diner together and we taste a lot of amazing wines. And till so far we love it here.
Day 37 - 38
Early morning shifts, we start each day at 8 in the morning, and start preparing as much as we can for harvest, because some of the grapes we are maybe going to pick this weekend. So a bit more of cleaning and making space is what it’s all about these days. Unfortunately Chris still has a hard time with his back, so he is taking it easy today and saving his energy for the big days. As closure of the day we all had diner together and enjoyed a good bottle of Good Intentions wine, and went for a good night sleep.
Day 39
Friday today and we are having a little party in Robe, We are doing the wine stand again. Robe is a beautiful spot next ti the ocean 2 hours further from Mount Gambier, we are staying in the family beach house that had an amazing view over the ocean. A fun day with lots of nice crazy people and wine. What more can you ask for.
Day 40
Day after the party, and the day start picking the first grapes of this years harvest, we are going to pick the Pinot Gris, in a spot very close to Robe thats called Cape Jaffa, a place full of vineyards. We are very excited to do this!!
It took us about 2 hours of picking, which is very quick actually. We pick everything by hand so the quality of the grapes stays good, and we leave nothing behind. Now the drive back and relax for the rest of the evening, tomorrow a new day!
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned for more as harvest is starting now, and we are going to do so much cool stuff.
