Picking the shiraz

A few years ago my parents planted a small vineyard as part of their property at Dwellingup. Last year they picked their first vintage and around Christmas we cracked the first bottles of River Road Chardonnay, which everyone agreed was actually pretty good! They also grow Pinot Noir, Shiraz and Viognier, which gets mixed with the Shiraz and the Chardonnay alternately, but none of those are ready for drinking yet. Last year James and I missed all the grape-picking because it all happens very last-minute, depending on the weather (both the grapes and the pickers need it to be as cool as possible) and the Baumé of the grapes. This year, though, we were determined to earn our share of wine by doing at least a little picking! So last Sunday evening we - together with my parents - donned our long-sleeved shirts and gloves, picked up our secateurs and got to work! We were picking the Shiraz, which is a very thick-skinned almost black grape. We only had about two hours until it got too dark to work but we worked our way up and down the rows pretty quickly and got all the grapes you can see here picked in that time. It's not complicated work but it is repetitive and you do get hot and tired pretty quickly. After two hours we were still doing ok, but I have to say I didn't envy mum and dad getting back into it at 6am the next morning!

I think when we get our hands on this year's wine it will taste especially good!