Vintage 2010 begins

The moment we've all been waiting for... Vintage 2010 is here, now. Picking of our estate Verdelho at 6am on Tuesday 9th of February marked the beginning of what promises to be a fantastic harvest of full-flavoured berries.

Tuesday 9th February, 2010: Just as the sun was rising over the Adelaide Hills to the east, our first grape picking for the vintage was starting below the Maxwell Winery, alongside Chalk Hill Road. The precious little Verdelho berries had barely woken up, but their time on the vine was over - they were perfectly ripe and indeed ripe for the picking. All it took was 3 hours to collect the fruit and bring it to the winery where Mark Maxwell took control of the immediate de-stemming and crushing, before winemaker Alexia Roberts and her assistant Matt Buchan carefully pressed the juice away from the skins through our pneumatic bag press. In all there were 7 and a half tonne of delicious Verdelho grapes; now it's just a matter of time (and skill on Lexi's part) until the 2010 Maxwell Little Demon Verdelho hits the wine store shelves and restaurant tables in all its fresh youthful vibrancy towards the middle of this year.

Next up for vintage is some Chardonnay, followed closely by an early ripening block of Shiraz around the middle of next week. And no rest for Lexi!