Our neighbour Hendo

So it has been a while. Just letting the ferments fizz away, some pressing, getting wine squared away in barrel, its all been happening... Seems the vintage is looking up. This year there has been some small batch ferments of fruit bought from separate sub-regional sites in other parts of Tasmania to have a look at some of the interesting differences possible from these distinct areas. It's all new for us, a first.

Meanwhile, when not considering these lofty thoughts, the pride of Tasmania often comes to visit. Here is our tractor driving neighbour, Hendo, and his special friend. Look how lovingly Hendo tends to his favourite person.

Spot it

Here is our Winemaking 101 table for a cool wine maker who came this morning with a tonne of his own Pinot Noir. He wants to make his own wine, so we gave him a head start with this smorgasbord of wine making paraphernalia.

Of course beer and lubricant and Bryce Rankin's tome for winemakers 'Making Good Wine' are all *hilarious* additions to the table.

Can you identify all the other crap on the table? Most of it is unopened and never used at Stoney Rise as Joe believes in wild yeast ferments, whole bunches, low impact winemaking and other things that dont involve powders and potions - but we don't discriminate against mates who love that gear.

Equipment

As a brief interlude from endless pics of two fairly average looking guys shoveling and admiring grapes, here is a rundown (to be added to from time to time) of some essential winemaking equipment at Stoney Rise.

The Probe:

Great for turn overs. Gets them juices flowin'. Watch as Joe expertly inserts it. And read as our innuendo becomes even more rife.

The Winery's main work space:

Feels more like a gentleman's lounge or decadent retreat than a winery. Beyond the barrels is the billiards room, the gaming lounge, the gladiatorial arena and a turkish bath.

Large tubs:

Perfect for doing small clonal ferments. This one contains Clone 115. This means little to many, but much to us. We love clones. Especially the episode where Anakin Skywalker lightsabres up some people. We also like Dolly the Sheep. That's also clonal.

Steel buckets:

Essential winemaking equipment because it looks fuckin awesome filled with dry ice and Hendricks gin. Note our beaker for measuring pours.

Plastic buckets:

Behold the tower of picking buckets. We believe this may be a world record for a stack of grape picking buckets but will settle for 'Largest In The Southern Hemisphere' or 'Pretty Big For Tasmania'

Hoses:

Haha. Is that Mike making it look like his hose is a penis? No way! That guy is crazy. Oh, no, its just a hose with Pinot Noir juice gently flowing over the cap. It's only done a few times before plunging starts up anyway.

Industrial 'accidents':

Well, that's what we told the insurers when we got fed up with our picker bringing back bad bunches...

If you are reading this and freaking out, which you could be for either the brilliance of the blog or the innuendo to a murder, please be aware this is just delicious Pinot Noir juice being washed down a drain. Lucky drain.

The Winery Dog:

The Winery Dog is ubiquitous enough to make an entire series of books out of this type of winery equipment. Though the books are a bit of a yawn fest, we do defer to the reasoning that you make crap wine unless you have a dog hanging around the winery. This one is called Ralph, even though it's a girl dog. Go figure.

We can't show you her face as she is The Winery Dog.

*Disclaimer, Ralph is actually in Wine Dogs II and though it says 'likes chasing tennis balls' in her profile (and so many other profiles) she really actually enjoys sniffing other dogs asses and rolling in dead things.

To be continued...