It was a great season, with way above average winter rain followed by typically low disease pressure in the spring and summer growing season, promoting excellent conditions for the organic regimes run across the four vineyards we manage, and subsequently very clean, healthy fruit of great yields.

A relatively mild Perth summer meant that ripening was a little later than usual considering the previous hot decade in the Swan Valley, allowing for some really stunning and healthy fruit, so hopes are high for some great wines.

We run the winery with a micro team for vintage, with a couple of extra sets of hands for about 3-4 weeks as required, while as usual Dad is on the tractor when needed. 

100% of fruit is handpicked and it’s almost entirely done by one local family, of 3-generations from kids to grandparents who come pick grapes for Chouette across the full season and the vineyards as required. It’s such hard yakka and the pickers really are my heroes, allowing me to concentrate in the winery as much as possible. 

After picking the boxes in the vineyards, our small team collects the fruit to get it out of the summer heat and back to the winery into a cool room before processing the following day. Hand picked, collected and chilled all in a short period of time allows for some high quality juice.

As usual, the lion’s share of the harvest is Chenin & Grenache fruit, while select small parcels of Touriga, Sangiovese, Verdelho, Semillon, Arinto & Pedro Ximénez brought the total harvest this year to around 45Ton of hand-picked grapes – the largest season to date.

The whites – Chenin & Chardonnay are looking particularly excellent this year, with an increasing amount of ceramic amphorae in use in the winery along with the concrete eggs and a little new oak, all showing excellent results. High Chenin yields allowed for some experimentation too, and I have a parcel looking to find its way to method traditional sparkling this year. Oranjou Amber Chenin is looking stylistically on-point and currently resting in Foudre and Puncheon.

Grenache came in across 4 vineyards, picked from very early through to late ripeness for the full profile spectrum available for blending Bonnie Rosé & Cold Cuts, through to Suzy & Besky Rouge. Single vineyard Revival Grenache this year is looking so balanced and pure, currently maturing in Hungarian Amphorae. 

So the dust has fully settled on a really great season, and the wines are all perched for a rest through autumn heading into winter. Now with time and consideration for blending decisions, pruning time and vineyard attention is coming fast x 

The spring wines are now out (!) after celebration of the year’s work with the first Spring Release event on a perfect spring day at the Chouette Winery Cellar Door on October 26th. Thanks so much to all who came to try the new wines and grab a pizza, especially those of you that brought a picnic and stayed to enjoy that extra bottle–well played!

The Spring wines feel so well suited to that almost-festival type vibe that the Chouette Cellar Door brings. I just love all the imagery and colour and the way all those wines drink so well in that setting with all of you. Shoutout to Peacock Dreams for the grand vinyl soundtrack to the day, and many thanks to Tastescape who shelled out pizzas like crazy! For those that booked-in for the November 9th event - see you there!

This year’s spring wine releases tread the line between playful and detailed really nicely, with many familiar favourites set to drink well through the long summer ahead. A couple of new wines surface this year, in the lively & spicy pink fizz of the Pepato Sparkling, and the classic minded Redux Chardonnay – a throw back to richer Chardy of days gone, through the lens of an experimental approach. Personal fave Fabric Chenin keeps evolving into a wonderful stylistic wine with balance of freshness, richness & fine texture, while this year’s Suzy Rouge is looking moreish as an everyday drinking red that just takes chill so well. My top ‘Revival’ Grenache is still maturing in ceramic amphorae for release next autumn.      

It’s always a rollercoaster ride of emotions raising wine up and into bottle, wondering if people will enjoy the results of the year’s work. The artist sensibilities in me go through emotional stages of “this is great, to this might be shit, to this is really hard, to this might actually be ok, to this could actually be really great!”. So I’ve been riding the wave of creation through to product release, and now the wines are out there and I’m really loving the reactions & feedback. To finally realise the wines and get that feedback of enjoyment, really does complete the cycle. I hope you all enjoy x