Filthy Good Vino

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

Cabernet is picked – BOOM!

Even the Sheep are loving the Filthy Good Vino Bathtub Winemaking Project!

Down the guts of the Crusher as the Cabernet makes it’s way through! The blurry paddles beat the berries off the bunches & feed the stalks out the end for me to collect for tea bag production later! All will be revealed!

Making a stalk teabag! Wrapping a bucket of the spicey colour fixing beauties in muslin to chuck in the ferment! I pull them out toward the end of the ferment before the hard, bitter stuff starts to be extracted! Timing as they say is everything & everyone likes their tea made THEIR way!

My stalky teabag pokes it’s head up through the vat full of must (crushed grapes) I’ll push it down to expel trapped ear and allow it to steep later!

Pushing my stalk teabag to the bottom of the vat!

Analysis Done! Temp 18C sugar 12.6Baumé! Most importantly flavour = Yummy & the tannin is ripe! That’s what you get with 17 year old vineyard yielding sub 2 Tonnes/acre, looked after by lots of worms!

Reflection on Yesterday’s Cabernet Pick! Transferring must from fruit bins into our bathtub vats using the old school bucket pump! Matt & I last worked with grapes together back in 2000 at Yering Station 12-15 hour / day 7 days a week! Not sure how we did it! After 1 day this year I was knackered!

2013 was filled with a bucket of Filthy Good Vino! Here’s a quick snap of a few!

What were your 2013 Filthy Good Vino highlights?

The Filthiest of Filthy Good Vino ~ Yummiest wine of the year goes to: 1971 Mouton-Rothschild

There was a heap of Filthy Good Burgundy & Barolo, but, Bordeaux pipped ’em, this was such an incredible wine, hard to go past.

Refined, elegant, incredible supple texture, layers of Yumminess, enchanting, true harmony. A Filthy Old Vino Thanks Dad. For the art lovers the label is a Kadinsky.

Runner up: 1994 Yarra Yering Pinot Noir

Blast from the past! Probably a bit sentimental. Bring it! Fabulous beast, Peter Wilson, you absolutely killed it with 1994 Yarra Yering Pinot 19yrs young. Loving the animal. Patience required to comprehend just how much evolution & refinement occurs with Yarra Yering wine over time. As a winemaker it does my head in! You try something, look at the wine over to five years, think you’ve got it sorted make changes in the vineyard & winery, then on it’s 19th B’day it freaks you out tells you it’s become a sophisticated adult & the zits have gone. It’s no longer a gangle creature working out how to use it’s arms & legs. It’s moving gracefully, caressing & enchanting all who sit for a moment in it’s company. 20 years to complete an experiment is a long time!

Best gear to knock back any old time ~ Filthy Now Vino: Gran Sasso Montepuliciano D’Abruzzo & Pippoli Aglianico for around Naples

For $10 to $15 your not going to get much more fun than these two babies! Great to have a different set of flavours dancing on your tongue. Wicked food wines. Go the Gran Sasso for the Pizza and Pippoli with a steak!

Filthiest Good White: It’s a Viognier Smackdown! 2003 Cuilleron Les Chaillet, Condireu vs 2001 YarraYering, Yarra Valley

Love the unctuous texture funk & spice in the Cuilleron. So pure with incredible personality. Acid driven style from Yarra Yering.

Fizzy Moment: Bollinger NV.

There was plenty of good bubbles, heap of vintage yuminess and grower Champagne, Larmandier Bernier stood out again! For fun and day to day yumminess Bollinger NV is punching above it’s weight.

Filthy Sticky Good Vino: 2003 Chateau Y’quem

Incredible balance, so many layers of yumminess and a flavour that just lingered FOREVER!

Ouch! FUCork Moment: 1973 Baileys Bundarra Bin 62 Hermitage & 1997 Wendouree Cabernet Malbec

What can you do! Bring on the Stelvin!