Red Wines

The red wine grapes are currently at 12 baume, just want to get them that bit riper and up to 13.5 before picking. Mark thinks the grapes will be picked the week before Easter, but as always this is fairly dependent on the weather.

If we keep getting nice warm sunny days and the rain holds off all should be well.

Maturity Testing

Here are some pictures of the red grape maturity testing, we want to ensure the grapes get nice and juicy.

Chardonnay Grapes

The Picking Frenzy Begins

We've just had 3 days of brilliant sunshine and perfect weather at long last, if the Gods are watching over us this should continue for the next couple of weeks. The vineyard team are getting prepared to pick all the rest of the Chardonnay in the vineyard tonight at 7pm. The plan is to continue picking every night for the rest of the week to get all the remaining fruit in to the winery.

The red grapes are currently are 12 baume so are ripening albeit slowly and are currently looking good. More pictures to come soon.

Pick of the Day

The vineyard team have been up early (1am start anyone?) and getting on with the picking before anymore rain hits Orange. Chardonnay and Riesling blocks are now safely in the winery, but with more still to get picked.

Weatherwise this week has been tempremental to say the least - hot sunny days filled with storms and heavy rain in the afternoon or evening - not what the grapes are wanting right now!

Mark and his team have been maturity testing the Bellview chardonnay & gewurz grapes today with the aim to get all the fruit off as soon as possible before more heavy rain forecast for next week.

Today's Picking

The grapes for our Union Bank Semillion were picked today and are headed off to the winery for processesing this afternoon. Nice and sunny today but we have been getting heavy showers every afternoon so will see what happens...

The plan is for the Riesling to be picked later this week dependent on conditions.

Bring on the Sunshine

Some more days like this would be perfect right now! Lots of sunshine to get the grapes juicy and ripe.

First Pick - Pinot Gris

Friday 4th March saw the first of the Belgravia Pinot Gris grapes harvested. Because these vines were recently grafted the grapes were all picked by hand nice and early in the morning.

Spoilt Rotten in Orange

Taste Orange have got a fantastic competition running at the moment where you could win an all expenses paid trip to Orange complete with all the VIP trimmings.

Fancy dinner at a restaurant of your choice?

A trip in a helicopter?

A personalised wine tour?

Accommodation of your choice?

Then click here for the full details and entry page.

NSW Cellar Door

This 2 day wine tasting event in Hyde Park, Sydney took place during the last weekend of February. The turn out was fantastic, with wine lovers of all ages coming down to sample the best wines NSW has to offer. Naturally the Orange region wines were popular all day and Belgravia sold more than 30 dozen wines along with plenty of bottle sales.

Will & Richard Hattersley were busy manning the Belgravia stand during the weekend and enjoyed getting to meet some many people. We are planning to do a lot more wine tasting events in Sydney over the coming months - so watch this space for details of our next tasting.

Let's Get Picking

The Pinot Gris and Sparkling Base are ready for picking tomorrow, so it will be all hands to the deck to ensure the grapes get collected smoothly and swiftly and then transferred to the winery at Wallace Lane. This is the first year that Pinot Gris grapes will be harvested from the Belgravia vineyard thanks to the new grafts and we can't wait to see the results!

Keep on Shining

We are enjoying some beautiful sunshine in Orange at the moment and we all have our fingers and toes crossed that this good weather is going to last at least a couple of weeks so the Belgravia grapes get a chance to ripen.

In the lead up to the 2011 vintage Mark Pengilly and his team have faced almost every weather condition nature could hurl at them. This has included frost, hail, heavy rain, floods, snow, more rain, a heat wave and more rain.

The team at the vineyard have taken all this in their stride and kept disease and pests at bay despite the weather not really helping. The conditions have meant that the vintage is running later than usual this year but on the plus side we should be able to harvest the grapes more evenly rather than everything at the same time.