To all our valued friends and customers, the team at Tibooburra is pleased to share our ever-evolving story and product information with you. Good news or bad, we bring it direct to you from the hills of Yellingbo in the Upper Yarra.
A Black Saturday but more blue skies ahead (and a ripper of a pinot deal ...)
Order form...cellar door prices.
Apart from the tragic loss of life and property, Saturday 7 February 2009 is a day that will re-define what it means to endure a Victorian summer. There were a record four days in excess of 40 degrees Celsius, culminating in that terrible day, and with the extreme heat, came the threat of severe sun-burn, smoke damage, and - in the worst imaginable scenario - fire.
Despite being peppered by blackened bark and leaves on the day of the fires, a south-westerly change stopped the flames about 10 kilometres short of Tibooburra. The CFA says that if the northerlies had persisted for another 15 minutes, the upper Yarra would have experienced ember attack and spotting.
We are very thankful to have gotten through fires and the summer in tact. Our Angus cattle are in good nick, and vines have held up remarkably well, with no signs of sun burn or smoke damaged fruit.
In fact, the biggest danger to the vines came with a freak storm one hot January afternoon that cut through the hill tops of Tibooburra in parallel scythes. The localised storm lasted all of about 90 seconds but its shrapnel-like hail stones left our most elevated Sauvignon Blanc parcel looking somewhat bedraggled. But such is resilience of vitis vinifera, the canopies were sufficiently strong to protect the fruiting zone, and that parcel has since produced an impressive crop.
Feedback from the wineries who buy our fruit has been very positive, with Tibooburra parcels making top grades from the 2009 vintage.
Meanwhile, the Tibooburra estate label continues to evolve with selections of fruit made from the best performing parcels in the vineyard and new contract winemaker Timo Mayer at the helm. The label continues to appear on some of the best wine lists in Melbourne and Sydney - Becco, Seamstress, Half Moon, Cosi, Vegie Bar, ezard @ Adelphi, Kuni's, Persimmon at NGV, The Grand Hotel, The London Tavern, the Botanical to name a few.
Wines from the 2007 vintage, namely our Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Merlot, continue to show finesse and character, and offer good value for money. Meanwhile, two wines from 2006 are drinking beautifully: the '06 Shiraz is rated 94/100 by Winorama, which says this wine has an "array of exotic spices ... flavours of dark fruit, cherry and dark chocolate with fine smooth tannins and excellent length..." The '06 Chardonnay is "leaning towards Chablis", according to James Halliday, with good "length and persistence".
Now is a good time to stock up before the Easter break, while stocks remain. We are offering a once-off 50 % discount on full cases of our 2007 Pinot Noir. This wine is something of a rogue, with atypical masculine, wild berry and charry oak characters, but for 14 bucks a bottle you can't lose. Try it with Indian food, tapas or Mediterranean dishes. The usual 15 % Friends of Tibooburra discount applies to our other wines, and mixed dozens.
Thought for Autumn: "If God forbade drinking, would He have made wine so good?
Cardinal Richeleu
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