Season 2018 was a terrific vintage year for us in the Macedon Ranges including many other grape growing areas as we had a nice warm picking season, so much so, we picked our grape the third week in March as our normal picking is done the third week in April.

The result was nice ripe fruit because of the season, it was well balanced - good acrid and because it was a nice warm season and not boiling hot. One of the things we have learnt living and growing in a marginal or cool area is to keep your spraying up on the vines weekly as that stops all these awful diseases on the vines like powdery and downy mildew. As if that gets in on the vines you will loose all your crop. We have had the years when we didn't spray the copper and sulphur o the vines ad we lost al of our fruit to these diseases. There is no problem admitting how often we spray as these two chemicals enhance the vines, not pull them back. It helps get good Pinot Noir fruit etc, which in turn makes good wine. As our Pinot vines are now 30 years old - Chardonnay the same and Cab/Merlot vines 45 years old.

That is of course the reason we have consistency with our wines coupled with the Terrior (soil) and good weather seasons - good wines don't come from the wines makers as they only go through the process of making wines because of the good fruit. It comes from the good site and soil in the vineyard.

Domaine Epis