Our Busy April and May

The 2014 statewide harvest was about 60% down on last year but luckily our tonnage was average. That is probably because flowering was so late that the bad weather had finished before our flowering started. It is a bit cooler here than the Tamar Valley and the south and east of Tasmania.

So, 2014 Tasmanian wine may be expensive, but we're expecting it to be excellent quality!

We had local pickers along with some hard working backpackers from all nationalities camping here and enjoying themselves. They all loved Tasmania and most said the wanted to stay forever. We weren't surprised!

Our second harvest of Dornfelder was picked during the first week of May and that was the last harvest. Our Dornfelder (Dawn Red) is the first in Australia and our first vintage was excellent and has been very well received since it came onto the market in the last few months so we're very excited about getting this year's bottled and perfecting it even more.

We spent the rest of May tidying up and relaxing.

Taste of the North West on the 26th of April and was another great success, despite the atrocious weather. Two tents had blown down overnight and wind was predicted all day.

We had a meeting and decided to go ahead. It was freezing but a lot of people still braved the shocking weather.

How Mr Inferno could concentrate juggling in his undies I do not know but he did. About two minutes after he finished a gale came through that blew chairs around.

Susanne Dobrowski of Modo Mio Brownies was asked to judge the stall using North West ingredients in the most creative way and awarded Black Ridge Farm the trophy for their trilogy of free range pork, lamb and goat.

The larder was the best attended so far with a range of local produce that people could take home with them.