With a new season, comes new wines, and we are incredibly excited to announce the launch of the first of our new vintages - the 2019 vintage of the Life from Stone, Special Cuvée and Miss Lucy will officially be released on the 2nd of September 2019. As a special preview, the new vintages will be available in our tasting room as well as on our online shop from today - to shop online, simply click here.
Our Sauvignons are released almost six months later than most, not because we can't get rid of them (on the contrary, they are often sold out for months at a time), but because we like to take our time and make the best possible wine we can. After harvesting we keep the free-run grape juice at -3 degrees Centigrade for anything from 6 weeks to 6 months, in order to build flavour, texture and complexity. This also allows us to settle the juice without the use of any enzymes, using only time and temperature to get the beautifully clear juice we desire. While we work reductively in the cellar, preventing any exposure to oxygen in order to have the most vibrant and crisp flavours in our wines, this also means blending and racking takes twice as long. After bottling, we allow our wines to rest for at least three months, in order to recover from the shock of being bottled.
A new month also marks the start of the Spring frost season - potentially crop destroying black frost that has seriously affected the region for the last few years, with some vineyards suffering losses of over 80%. Until now we have combated frost by flying over the vineyards at risk with helicopters, but this year more permanent measures are being put in place. August saw the installation of the first 4 frost fighting fans in our vineyards - these fans will kick on automatically when temperatures reach a certain low, stirring up the cold air sinking to the ground with the warmer air up above, and therefore preventing the crop-threatening spring frost during bud break and flowering.
These fans are the first of their kind in the country, and we will need 12 in total to cover all the frost-prone vineyards on the farm. Until then, they will be running in conjunction with the helicopters we normally employ and will make a big difference in the critical pre-dawn hours over the next couple of months. It is a lot of work to make wine the way we do, but the work starts long before the grapes hit the cellar. From the day a new vineyard is planned, we start making decisions - and our philosophy at Springfield is to make the decision that is the best for the wine.
From careful site selection, fans to fight four nights of frost a year, to bottles that are hand-wrapped and packaged label side up every time - these are decisions that all add up to make wines that are rich in history, terroir and flavour - wines that are made with Honour.