SPRING 2022 NEWSLETTER — First Ridge Wines

THOUGHTS FROM THE CELLAR DOOR

It’s a sensational time of the year for us here in Mudgee with the town’s blossom trees looking quite beautiful. The view from our cellar door is stunning. Our vineyard is in excellent shape and the fields beyond are very green!

With the days getting a little longer and a little warmer, we’ve also been enjoying some stunning sunsets from the cellar door, and while our wood fire has kept us all warm through the winter months, it’s almost time to put the matches away and enjoy the Spring weather!

By the time this newsletter is released we’ll have bottled our new 2022 whites, Rose’ and our 2021 Barbera. While we’ve sold out of our 2021 Pinot Grigio, we still have stocks of our 2021 Vermentino, Fíano, Rose’ and La Dolce Vita available for you at the cellar door.

We recently released our 2022 Prosecco both at the cellar door and on line, which is just as good as our 2021, so I’m sure it’ll be very popular over the Spring and Summer months!

Some exiting news.......! Those of you who are familiar with our Enzo blend, which we replaced with our Marco blend in our First Ridge range, will be pleased to know that the Enzo will soon be available once again! We’re about to release our Enzo under a new label named Mudgee Ridge Estate for our hospitality customers, and we’ll no doubt keep a few cases of it at the cellar door for our Enzo enthusiasts!

See you at the Cellar Door!

Graeme and the Team

An update from our Wine Maker

The blossoms are out in Mudgee and despite the rumblings of hay fever it can only mean one thing…Spring…, and with the new shoots emerging, so too are the new releases.

Spring will see the 2022 Vermentino, Fiano, Pinot Grigio and Rosé in bottle and into your glass. As well as fresh Frizzante and a new addition to the sparkling range that I’ll keep up my sleeve for the moment. Coupled with the fresh, crisp and delicious white wines, the 2021 Barbera will also be bottled and ready to go in the not so distant.

These are exciting times as the new Vintage buds begin to swell and burst, and we’ve new wines to fill your glasses with and toast to warmer weather, renewal and the change of season.

And that’s nothing to sneeze at….

Cheers,

James Manners - Wine Maker

Viticulture Report

With winter drawing to a close, pruning is all but complete, and while working through the wet winter conditions has been a challenge, our Viticulturalist, Paul Baguley, believes the vineyard is in great shape and ready to commence the growing season.

It’s still fairly cool in Mudgee, and based on current soil temperatures of approximately 4 degrees, bud burst is expected to start happening any day now on the early varieties.

Paul tells us that “With all the soil moisture available we are expecting an even bud burst with rapid early canopy growth, which is just as well, as canopy management will play an important role in ensuring that we continue to produce premium wines.”

While this may sound a bit technical, the canopy management programs are implemented to ensure adequate air flow and fruit positioning to ensure a balanced canopy leaf to fruit ratio. In order to achieve that, things like sucker removal, shoot positioning and fruit thinning are implemented prior to lifting wires that are part of the VSP (Vertical Shoot Position) canopy management program that’s in place at First Ridge.

Paul believes that ensuring balanced canopy management is all in the timing and with the 2022-2023 vintage expecting to be reasonably wet, that it will no doubt present some challenges. Paul says “First Ridge is a unique site that drains quickly after rain and always has windy conditions, which helps the canopy to dry out quickly. This allows the complete management programs to be implemented as we need to. We’re really looking forward to the 2022-2023 vintage and the management programs we have in place allow us to continue the quality production of our premium wines.”