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Autumn/Winter 2008 Newsletter
Dear Friends and Wine-Lovers,
We trust you are all well and coping with the spiraling fuel costs – which seem to be the hot news topic at present! I guess we will all just have to stay home more often with a good bottle of wine – Haan of course!
If you have ever been to the Barossa at this time of the year you will know just how beautiful it is. If you haven’t, then put it down as a future holiday destination. The weather is generally quite mild during April and May, with many sunny days. The nights are quite cool, but there are plenty of local destinations that offer warm open fires, mugs of hearty soup and of course a nip of port to keep out the autumn chills. However it’s the brilliant reds and yellows of the autumn leaves that make the area so spectacular right now.
In fact the season has started well in the Barossa, with some excellent autumn rains. Of course we need lots, lots more to make up for the drought year of 2006, but things are certainly looking promising.
As most of you will know it turned out to be quite a disastrous vintage in many wine producing regions once the March heatwave struck. The Barossa was no exception, with many growers losing a large proportion of their crop during the 16 days of around 38-40°C heat. Fortunately the majority of the Haan vineyards were picked before the heat struck, and the pre-heatwave grapes were just sensational, especially the reds, so we are looking forward to releasing some absolute stunners in the next couple of years.
The Viognier and Semillon enjoyed the mild ripening period early in the season, and were picked late in February, well before the heatwave. Consequently the wines have those intense fruit flavours that we come to expect from excellent Barossa whites.
Bottling
Over the next few months we will be bottling the 2006 red wines, and these too are looking exceptional. The 2008 white wines will be ready around September, so with our next newsletter we will be able to offer you some of the new releases.
In the meantime, we have a small quantity of the 2005 Wilhelmus and the 2005 Shiraz Prestige available, as well as a few dozen of the 2006 Semillon. Unfortunately the remaining wines have sold out, but if you would like any of those mentioned, please contact the winery for an order form.
With our very best wishes,
Hans and Fransien Haan