Providence Vineyards

Vintage 2013

Stuart — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:16:52 +0000

Let me state that 2013 was a big improvement on at least the last five years. We picked 3.7 tonnes of Chardonnay and 4.9 tonnes of Pinot Noir. Quality? The fruit was in excellent condition, thanks to the complete exclusion of birds, which also meant no wasps, as despite some opposing views, the wasps wait for the birds to breach the fruit so they can get their fill.

The Music School Team

We picked Chardonnay on 13th April and Pinot on 21st. We remain grateful to that magic team of staff, parents and students of the Launceston Church Grammar School Music School, led by stalwarts, Barry Dudgeon and Sherryn Hepher. Since 2001 we have had this magnificent arrangement with Grammar and long may it continue.

Now, to the fruit. excellent flavour but with a higher pH than we would have liked. But, nevertheless, both wines will be of very good quality. Unfortunately, we lost the Riesling, which suffered from the 130 mm of rain we received over two days on 21 and 22 April. The Botrytis infection would have made picking good fruit virtually impossible. No point in making a wine that compromises the brand

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Approaching Vintage

Stuart — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:41:37 +0000

I’m working away from the vineyard but it is in good hands. The bird control has been nothing short of excellent but we have someone going around the nets every morning to make sure there have been no intrusions. The excitement is rising as we approach the days that define the season: picking Chardonnay next Saturday and Pinot Noir the following Sunday week. A year’s work is judged on the success of these days. Thus far we have been very pleased with the evenness of ripeness of both varieties. The Picking team (Launceston Church Grammar Music School) will again be with us this year and I think it’s the 11th or 12th year they have done so. Great work, the Music staff: Barry Dudgeon and Sherryn Hepher! See you on Saturday!

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Nets are On!

Stuart — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 07:10:04 +0000

A couple of firsts – 2013 is the first time we have had to net in the rain. A couple of times it poured and one such event was bordering on tropical. Consequently, we got wet as shags and the nets weighed about three times their normal weight.

The second first is we used Kone elevator cables to hold the nets on the ground and hopefully exclude all bird life from entering. No, there are no elevators resting at the bottom of their shafts – these are used cables, slightly oily but perfectly intact. After vintage, the cables will be positioned next to the vines in the void and stay there until next season. Hopefully, they won’t lose too much flexibility. Last year we lost about $15,000 worth of fruit through bird damage – even fully netted!

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Interlopers in the Vineyard!

Stuart — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 05:48:52 +0000

Nesting peacefully in the Open Lyre Pinot is this clutch of blackbirds. They will grow up on a diet of fresh grapes. However, they are very tidy birds, completely finishing a grape before moving on to the next, leaving nothing to the detriment of the wine. Because they sing so sweetly in the mornings we leave them alone and accept the losses. On the other hand, pesky silvereyes are very messy eaters, piercing their target grape once only then moving on to the next thus creating aerobic fermentation of bunches. They don’t nest in the vineyard, they are the original fly in-fly out (FIFO) birds!

Resident Grape munchers!

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Champagne at a Tasmanian Vineyard??

Stuart — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:05:01 +0000

Our first recycle day after Christmas is next Tuesday. The bin is nearly full and a few of the bottles are Moet Chandon. Moet at Christmas has been a Bryce tradition since 1963 when my mother, Peggy Bryce, bought a case of it that year. As in every year since, we started with fish and Moet for breakfast. In lean years we would resort to fish fingers but never gave up on the Moet! Now this may sound a bit unpatriotic that a Tasmanian wine producer, who has had past difficulties with the French would drink champagne but I have to admit, that is one of the few things the French are still doing better than are we, although the gap has been closing rapidly over the past decade. Tasmanian sparkles produced by my colleagues is a great drink and we manage to dispose of quite a lot throughout the year, in particular Jansz, a near neighbour at Pipers Brook, which is the only sparkles we serve at functions at Providence. Although tempted on several occasions to make a sparkle the difficulty is in the cost of a small production and the time it takes to get a return. So we will leave it to the likes of Robert Hill-Smith et al!

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Vine Hedging at Providence

Stuart — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 02:24:28 +0000

The Little Green Man!

Well, 2012 has ben progressing well. The recently arrived mites have left the vineyard and the squirt of nitrogen which caused some early leaf burn has greatly assisted canopy development. Flowering was very short – about a week and we are past fruit set on Pinot and Chardonnay and almost through on Riesling. I started hedging the vines the past two days. A very messy, and manual job done with a modified brush cutter. I always wanted a photo of what I looked like when I finished.

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Tas Bash 2012

Stuart — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 02:11:35 +0000

The Bashers at Providence

Variety’s “Possum” Leadbeater finds something missing from Blinky.

Stuart crewed on Jan Gul’s “Blinky Bill”: a 1970 Holden ute carrying the Blinky Bill characters. During the “Bash” Providence catered for a lunch for all participants and the Variety staff. We travelled through the north west, Lakes country, east coast and the Styx Valley, finishing at the Salmon Ponds at Bushey Park. The figure raised by the bashers for Variety and children with special needs was about $150,000. My contribution was to knock Marcia Mouse’s head off when I drove under a tree beside the road at Brighton! A big thanks to Alison O’Neil and the Variety staff as well as Ian Johnson for preparing the ute which, apart from losing a wheel and axle whilst positioning at Burnie for the start, gave us no trouble.

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Budburst 2012

Stuart — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 00:42:02 +0000

Pinot Noir budburst on the Open Lyre Trellis

Budburst has always been an exciting moment at Providence – when new life is first seen, heralding the start of a new growing season. This photo was taken on 23 September, about a week later than the standard (so much for global warming!). This is Pinot Noir on the Open Lyre trellis system, designed by Dr Alaine Carbonneau of the University of Bordeaux. In France this trellis is only seen on university campuses or outside defined appellation regions. It is an effective trellis for cool climates and quite productive; however, it is a management nightmare and I wouldn’t encourage its use. This is the time we contemplate the vagaries that each season brings. There is no such thing as the ‘usual’ season or the ‘norm’. Every season brings new challenges and 2012/13 will be no different!

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The “Ultimate” Stubby Cooler

Stuart — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 08:58:16 +0000

Well, someone’s finally thought of it: A stubby cooler that keeps your beer cold and your hands warm. 100% natural product, made from Tasmanian wallaby skin after the wallaby no longer needs it as it has been prepared for human consumption. Wallaby meat from Lenah Game meats has been a long-time favourite in restaurants across Australia. And now this! For more info, please drop me a line at Providence. These coolers are simply fantastic and unique.

The “Ultimate” stubby cooler

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Secret Weapon!

Stuart — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 04:11:31 +0000

Our secret weapon!

After struggling to protect our precious grapes from their major predator, the ubiquitous Silvereye (aka White eye) we have purchased a secret weapon! Whereas nets have been largely successful in limiting damage, the little suckers, despite being labelled ‘arboreal’, manage to get inside the nets by crawling underneath! Undulating ground makes sealing this entrance difficult and the many birds that make it in make it their home until vintage. With the help of the staff from Kone Elevators Pty Ltd, we are purchasing used elevator cables, which we will lay on top of the nets at the sides and end of each block. These cables weigh in at about 1Kg/metre, which should prove to be more that the average Silvereye can lift! Once we keep the Silvereyes out, the feral cats will be less inclined to rip holes in the nets to get at their prey. Let’s hope that the season 12/13 will solve this perennial problem caused by this protected species who dose up on sugar to make their way to as far as northern NSW for the winter.

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