News

As of today we only have 50 more tonne of fruit to crush!

Rose of Virginia is 2 weeks off being bottled and the Reds are fermenting away nicely.

We've had Sarah our Sydney sales rep down getting her hands dirty this week and loving it! 
Then Ed Foley, our lucky MBM winner arrives this weekend to experience a little CMW hospitality and vinatge in Charlie's Big Shed!!

Late start to the vinatge...well in comparison to the previous 5 years anyway.
This year we have a french winemaker, Pierre helping us out from Champagne which is rather exciting and always keeps morning tea interesting!
So far it looks like we will have a relatively short vintage and should see things wrap up by Easter.
2011 Rose of Virginia is well under way and should see it early May at this stage!

Stay Tuned!!

Vintage?? Where??

Usually we would be gearing up to pick some grapes, but it has been unusually cool and wet.
The hills are still green....something we haven't seen for many years in the middle of Summer and the Winery Shed couldnt get any cleaner!!!

Where is Vintage??

We finished the year off with a bang chosing to have our end of year bash at Bucks' @ Springton ( near Eden Valley) with "Singstar" aka Karaoke!!!

Charlie sang his heart out to "Frankie and Johnny"...
The office girls sang to the tune of Beyonce...and the rest well, it was late and it's best not to mention anymore!

The 73 acre block we purchased up at High Eden in September of 2008 is in it's final stages of preparation. 

We have been sourcing cuttings of the Chateauneuf du Pape varieties for the past 2 years and so far have come up with 8 of the 13 varieties. The other 5 are aren't available in Australia as yet and we hope to one day have all of the varieties planted.

Planting begins next month, its a big job with 2 years preperation, planning, ripping and surveying about to pay off. We are extremely excited!

We didn't just have one birthday to Celebrate this year...we had two!

Not only did the winery turn 25 but our new addition celebrated it's first birthday. That's right, it's been a year since we opened The Kirche.

Celebrations were kept to a minimum...we were all too busy!!!

Well it's that time of year when we say goodbye to Charlie for a few weeks...no not a holiday, but flying the Charles Melton Flag in the northern hemisphere.

Every year Charlie flys to somewhere in Europe and promotes our wines at trade tastings and dinners. It's hard work being wanted by everyone all over the world!!

Charlie and Virginia have been in 'action' under the lights lately, with film crews from Argentina, Fairfax media and Channel 7s "Discover" programme all treading a path to Charles Melton Wines in the past couple of months.

Charles Melton is one of a handful of South Australian wineries and restaurants to feature on prime time TV in Argentina later this year. 

Our new vineyard accommodation "The Kirche" will also soon feature on Fairfax Media's travel website www. for two months - as well as the Barossa Wine & Tourism Association website www.barossa.com

And look out for an interview with Charlie on Channel 7s "Discover" programme, hosted by Chris Dittmar, towards the end of May (screens Saturday nights, 5.30pm).

The 2010 vintage - the first one in our new winery - is now complete.

Yields of Grenache were 20-30% down, due to the Nov 2009 heatwave which upset flowering, but Shiraz and Cabernet were on track - and the overall quality is very high.

The Sotto is hanging in Paul Clancy's shed - and we've already bottled the Rose of Virginia which, as we write, is hitting restaurant tables and bottlestores, and of course the Charles Melton cellar door!

The new winery was ready just in time for the first crush, and the vintage proceeded very smoothly - despite warm temperatures resulting in a very short, sharp, shiny harvest.  The majority of our fruit was ripe for picking within a 3 week period. 

Charlie, James, Pete, Nicki and Mel were very happy to be under the shed roof during the hot, sunny days.  Pumpovers in the shade - what a luxury!