01 November 2014
At last – a new and improved website! Easier ordering, beautiful photography and more detailed information... This coupled with new wine release dates make up some of the radical changes taking place here this year.
These changes have been made after receiving your feedback. We were told you would prefer to receive our wines more quickly after placing an order with us. Therefore our annual release will now take place in mid April of each year once the wines are ready for delivery.
Having been one of the very first wineries in Australia to sell via the Internet back in 2001, our still-original website had become very much outgrown and outdated! The new website will be much easier to use, navigate and place orders. It will also facilitate better communication with you in future.
To celebrate all of these changes, we will begin to offer a selection of bottle aged and rare award winning wines direct from our cellar. This will include a small release of the extraordinary 2010 and 2011 Estate Vineyard Chardonnay! These wines are limited to 3 bottles of each per customer.
You are now also able to buy our current release 2013 Nantua Chardonnay. Our tasting notes for this wine are as follows:
"Bright in colour; straw gold tinged with green Peach and nectarine fruit coming to the fore, then complex lees derived characters which mingle with ginger and orange zest aromatics. White stone fruits fill the palate in a controlled manner – textural roundness precisely framed by oak and acid. Fittingly, the flourish in the tail delivers a timely reminder of the mineral qualities from granite soils, with a dry and fine savoury finish."
Our next major release (2013 vintage wines) will be on 15 April 2015, as opposed to each November as we have done in the past. This means your wines will be already in bottle for prompt delivery once your order has been confirmed. Our En Primeur offer (2014 vintage wines) will also be made available at the same time. All our these wines will be offered at prices comparable to the last vintage.
On a final note, an enormous thank you to our outgoing Sales and Marketing Manager – Russell Branton and wife Tricia for 20+ years of dedicated service. Congratulations on your retirement!
Regards,
Rick Kinzbrunner
Announcing our 'in-conversion organic' status
01 March 2018Words by Casey White - Vineyard Manager
My first vintage is all but complete here at Giaconda. When I set foot through the front gates last winter I was quite nervous, yet excited to be tackling such a prestigious vineyard. I had always been aware of the great wines produced from this property but did not understand what really drove this level of quality from a vineyard perspective.
Rick had set me the main task of looking after all the vines and continuing to produce beautiful fruit, but also to take the Estate Vineyard to a certified organic status. This is something I am passionate about, having developed some organic and sustainable viticulture methods in my previous role.
Our initial visit from the team at Demeter Australia involved inspecting the vineyard soils to assess the levels of organic rich humus. They were pleased to find beautiful soils that have tested absolutely free of chemical residues, are rich in humus, and could confidently see the vineyard has been managed with an organic approach for many decades.
It is pleasing to announce our 'in-conversion organic' status under supervision of the Bio Dynamic Research Institute (BDRI) certification process and that we will be fully certified in the very near future.
Getting my hands dirty in the vineyard and seeing how healthy the soil is, soon gave me an appreciation of all the years of hard work which has been put into this vineyard. The soil is alive with healthy microbes, which flows directly through the vines, the fruit, and finally the wines!