Brown Magpie Wines - The Warble

Hi Everyone

We have had a busy month here at Brown Magpie Wines while you have been sitting on the beach. Not that we are complaining. We have enjoyed your visits to our cellar door on those days you were looking for a change. The number of customers were up and you all certainly enjoyed our extensive wine tasting.

Chris, our winemaker, is busy racking, blending and filtering the Pinot Noir Premium 2011, the Chardonnay 2011 and the Late Harvest Pinot Gris 2011 for our February bottling. He is very pleased with the year's efforts, so we have some great wine to look forward to.

Robert and Tim have been busy in the vineyard getting ready to put the bird nets on. The ripening seems a little early this year, so we have birds everywhere. We have had to put a scare gun on, but the neighbours do not have to worry, it will only be for a couple of days while we get the nets on. Roger, Nick, Ian and John our netting team will be coming this week, so we hope it will not be too windy for them.

We will be attaching this blog to a newsletter soon, so our members will receive a link on their email. It is ok, we will keep the letter short and sweet.

Well almost February and we are back to opening on weekends only again from the 1st between 12 noon and 3 pm.

Hope to see you soon!

 

Kind Regards

Loretta

 

Hi Everyone

Well it has certainly been busy here! Robert and Tim  have  finished the weeding, mowing and whippersnipping. The vineyard looks lovely. We will be looking forward to seeing you over January. We are open everyday this month between 12 noon and 3pm.

We have a lovely range of wines to taste over this month. We are going to open the Shiraz 04 for tasting. We are also having a special on the 07 Pinot Noir at $12.00 a bottle.

We have had a great year for winning awards this year. I will put an update on our site, but our 2010 Shiraz winning the the top gold in its class in the National Wine Show and the Trophy for Best Wine in the Geelong Wine Show was pretty impressive. Our Pinot Noir 2010 also medalled in the Royal Melbourne Show against some pretty tough opposition. I think this wine is going to be a real winner with a little more time in the bottle. It will be worth keeping your eye on this one!

Don't forget that you can order through our website any time and we can give you free delivery, unless you live on top of Uluru or somewhere else remote.

Anyway, have a peaceful and safe Christmas.

Kind Regards

Loretta

 

Hi Everyone

We have had a very successful month at the wine shows. In particular, the Geelong Wine Show, which is our most important Regional Show. Our Brown Magpie Shiraz 2010 won the The Williams and Jackson Trophy for Best Wine in Show. The Brown Magpie Shiraz 2010 also won the NZ Kauri Trophy for Best Shiraz - category 7

We also won silver medals for our 2010 Brown Magpie Late Harvest Pinot Gris, 2010 Brown Magpie Pinot Noir, 2011 Brown Magpie Pinot Grigio and 2008 Modewarre Mud Shiraz. We won a Bronze for our 2011 Rose. Well done Chris Sargeant and the rest of the team.

We are busy in the vineyard. Robert and  Tim are mowing.  You can see the weeds growing at the moment. They are also putting the wires up. This holds the canes in place and not only prevents the canes from breaking in the wind, but also keeps the canes from touching the ground and allows the air to circulate through the vine, which helps to prevent downy mildew.

Thank you everyone who visited us on the Toast to the Coast Weekend. We had a lovely two days, drinking wine, savouring the pizzas and listening to music. It was lovely to catch up with our old customers and get aquainted with some of our new ones.

We will open everyday in December and January, except Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Cheers

Loretta Breheny

Toast to the Coast

Oct 29, Oct 30 2011 (Long Melbourne Cup Weekend)

Brown Magpie Wines

125 Larcombes Road

Modewarre 3240

11.00am - 4pm

The Toast to the Coast is on again. It is on between October 29 and October 30 2011 the Melbourne Cup long weekend. The website if you want more information is www.toasttothecoast.com.au . This is our 10th anniversary of the Toast. The three sub regions of Geelong will be celebrating and 27 wineries will be participating. Everyone has been working hard to give you a great weekend of wine, music and food.

If you are looking toget off the beaten track, a visit to Brown Magpie Wines is just the thing. Our vineyard is nestled in the Surf Coast Hinterland just a few minutes from the pretty township of Moriac. Try our wines, warm yourselves near the wood fire oven, enjoy a sausage and listen to great muusic.

Wine

Full tasting of wines including past vintages.

Food

Sausage sizzle

Wood Fire Oven Demonstration

Fun

Saturday - Jason Coghill from J Band

Sunday - Guthrie Pastiche, acoustic artist from the Surf Coast

Designated Driver - One complementary drink or sausage.

 

All the team at Brown Magpie Wines will be here, So drop in and have a chat with us.

 

Cheers

Loretta

 

Fed Square Wine Showcase 2011

Hi Everyone

Join us at the Fed Square Wine Showcase on Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 October 2011

We'll be showcasing some of our finest drops in the city along with other boutique wineries from Geelong, Henty, Western Victoria, the Grampians and the Pyrenees. Chris Sargeant, our wonderful winemaker, will be there to talk about the wine, so drop in and have a chat to him.

Guests will also have the chance to sign up for City to Cellar - a new initiative that rewards visits to regional Victoria with special offers and discounts at participating wineries.

Date: 5 and 6 October

Location: The Atrrium, Federation Square

Time: 4.30pm - 8.30pm

Info: www.fedsquare.com/wine

 

Cheers

Loretta

 

Hi Everyone
I hope everyone is enjoying a lovely Brown Magpie Pinot Noir near the fire. We certainly need something to cheer ourselves up.

The good news is that the dams are full and everything is preparing for a spring burst. Cross your fingers for a new baby brown magpie!! Craig has brought in the pre-pruner and prepared the vines for the finer pruning by Long's wonderful pruning team. He will be coming this week. We have also ordered the poles to repair our vineyard after the storms we had last year.

James Halliday has awarded us 4 and a 1/2 stars once again.  This means we are an excellent winery knocking on the door of a 5 star rating. Our 2009 Shiraz has won a rating of 94 points or five cups. This is a limited release because of the drought, so if you want some please contact me directly. Our Chardonnay 2010 and Geelong Pinot Noir 2009 both received 90 points with an excellent value star. Chris Sargeant our wonderful energetic winemaker had his name misspelled. Completely my mistake, I am afraid.
We will be opening up in September 3 and 4, so please come and see us then.

Kind Regards

Loretta Breheny

Hi Everyone
Well are having  an exciting month. We entered several wines into the prestigious Wine Wise Small Vignerons Awards and received some wonderful Awards. Our wonderful 2010 Shiraz has one the top Gold in its class. Our 2010 Chardonnay  won a very high Silver and 2010 Pinot Noir came in with a very sound Bronze. Well done to our winemaking team! The Chardonnay will be released at the Toast of the Coast which is coming up on 29 and 30 October. However the 2010 Shiraz and 2010 Pinot Noir will not be released until probably sometime next year. It will be even better by then!

Kind Regards
Loretta

Hi Everyone
We have done very well  at the first international wine show for 2011. We entered in The International Cool Climate Wine Show 2011. We received bronzes for our Pinot Gris 2010, Pinot Noir 2010, Pinot Noir 2009, Pinot Noir 2008 and Sparkling Pinot Noir 2008. Congratulations to our great team Chris Sargeant and Robert Steel and my sweet self of course.
Also, we would like to remind you that the cellar door is closed for June, July and August. We will reopen in the first weekend in September.
We have been busy in the vineyard preparing our vineyard for the pre pruner. It is a big machine that comes in and roughly cuts the canes off the vines. This makes it easier for our pruners to do the finer pruning work.

Any way keep warm and drink plenty of our lovely Brown Magpie reds this winter.

Kind Regards
Loretta Breheny

Hi Everyone

It was lovely to see you all over Easter. The weather was lovely and the leaves on the vines are slowly turning lovely yellow, orange and red. What an amazing time to visit vineyards.

The picking has almost finished, but the work is just starting in the winery. The whites have to be prepared for bottling. We have to cold stabilise the whites in refrigerated tanks. This stops the tartrates  from forming. We have to fine the wine with a special clay to take the proteins out. This stops the wine from clouding up in a warm room. It then has to be filtered to take out any micro organisms. This stops the wine from developing any bad smells. All of this works gives you a lovely  sparkling clean wine. The reds have to be racked to take out the dead yeast cells, stored in barrels and checked to see when the malo-lactic fermentation or secondary fermentation has finished. While this secondary fermentation is progressing, the wine is protected. However, once it has finished, the wine has to be racked to rid of any sediment and has sulphur added to protect the wine. Chris is busy right through winter to get ready for our September bottling.

When you see our lovely 2011 vintage, you will now appreciate all the care and attention we have given it.

Regards

Loretta

Hi Everyone
I suppose everyone is getting ready for the Easter Bunny. I hope you all enjoy the much deserved break. Remember, if you are down the coast, except for Good Friday, we are open Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. We look forward to you dropping in. If you come down you will notice that most of the nets are off the vines. We have picked everything except the late harvest pinot gris and the shiraz. The last of the pinot noir is coming off today. The wine, so far, looks wonderful. I think it is going to be a great year inspite of all the worry of disease. At least, we have had plenty of water.
Please remember to drive safely, particularly around the back roads if you are visiting us, and remember "small egg - long walk" and drink plenty of our wonderful wine- when you are not driving of course.

Happy Easter!!

Loretta Breheny