The Wineshed@3DE, Mudstone Ridge Kitchen and a new pup!

The Wineshed@3DE,  Mudstone Ridge Kitchen and a new pup!

After a pretty rocky year for most of us, 2020 is finally behind us. 

Despite the restrictions on visiting friends and family in Melbourne, we actually had our most productive year ever and managed to get quite a lot done around the place. Apart from planting out the last 6 rows of the new vineyard with the Grenache, the kangaroo fence was put up and the new 25,000 litre water tank was moved into position with the help of our neighbour Jeremy and his ute, chains, straps and hand winches. This tank when full will table to water the vineyard, twice a week for 10 weeks if needed. During the winter months this year, all three dams were overflowing with precious water being lost to nature so having extra storage capacity during such times is critical when the rain don't come! So far this year, we've only seen about 6mm of rain and despite our automated irrigation systems, the gardens and vines are starting to struggle and if we don't get rain soon, we're in trouble!

UPDATE: Jan 29th, It's finally raining! It's 5.30pm and so far, 48mm of rain since 9am!

The Wineshed @3DE

One of the major projects undertaken during the Great Lockdown of 2020, was the fitting out of the old reclaimed tin shed as a new venue/dining/bar space. Generously donated by Pete Pichut from Palling Bros. Brewery in town, this old shed was once located at the McIvor Times site in High Street but now, no longer required. Using old recycled corrugated iron, fence palings and decking boards, the old shed now has a new life and has become a great addition to the Cellar door. Complete with a turntable and an eclectic vinyl selection, a pot belly stove for the winter months, and a comfy couch and  the Wineshed @3DE is a perfect place to relax and enjoy some delicious Spanish style tapas and 3DE wine and local beer. It also has a Providore selling various delicacies as well as old wares and collectibles. 

Mudstone Ridge Kitchen

In November last year, the new kitchen was signed off by the Council and our Class 2 food license was issued. This allows us to prepare and sell food, and food products produced on the property such as honey, olives, sauces and chutneys. We have also started an onsite catering business called Mudstone Ridge kitchen which aims to provide Spanish inspired dishes to eat on the premises or to pre order as Take Away  for visitors to enjoy while visiting the regions wineries and picnic spots. All details for the Grazing and Tapas bags can be found on our website here

Meet Zephyr! 

We're excited to introduce the newest member to the 3DE family...young Zephyr. A border collie/kelpie/labrador cross. He's now 5 months old but came to us as a rescue through our neighbours that foster unwanted dogs. He's a great little guy and always keen to be part of the action, almost so much that we're considering changing his name to FOMO for his 'fear of missing out'! He loves his new "brother" Ziggy but needs to understand the 13 year age gap and stop jumping on his head!

Hoping he'll grow into his legs one day!

Vineyard News

The Tempranillo is well into Vèraison now (that time when the berries start to change colour and the sugar content climbs). Due to the lack of summer rain (until today!), the vines have copped a bit of heat stress and the berries are on the small side at the moment. With a bit of luck, today's rain should supercharge the vines and help plump up the grapes. Still maintaining a 100% strike rate on the new Mudstone Ridge vineyard down the hill with most of the Monastrell vines tied down to the cordon wire as well as several of the recently planted Grenache vines. We're expecting to harvest the first crop of Monastrell in March 2022, pandemic or not!

Agapanthus in full flower.

www.threedamsestate.com.au

 

Winter is (still ) here and so is COVID!

 July/August 2020..COVID-19, and Lockdown..AGAIN!

We're now a few weeks into August 2020, and who would have believed it that we'd be back in lockdown again living in a declared State of Disaster! Unlike our friends and family in Melbourne subjected to Stage 4 Restrictions (curfew between 8pm and 5am), at least up in regional Victoria we can still leave the house anytime provided we wear a mask. Stage 3 restrictions also means, no visitors from family or friends so that means no more Cellar Door for the foreseeable future. The lockdown is in place for 6 weeks but potentially could be extended depending on how things go with containing the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, things go on pretty much as normal at 3DE. Plenty of work being done around the place including in the garden and vineyards. The last 6 remaining rows in the new vineyard, (now called the Mudstone Ridge vineyard) have now been re-ripped and prepared with organic fertiliser, mushroom compost, gypsum and lime ready for the Grenache planting in a few months time. After a pretty dry July with below average rainfall, August so far has seen more rain than the whole of last month. The three dams are once again overflowing and perfect timing for the new vineyard too.

As well as prepping the vineyard, we have levelled a site above the vineyard for a 23,500 litre water tank. The plan is to pump water from the lower dam in wet conditions like we're experiencing now that we can use to water the vineyard throughout summer. The beauty of this is that the vine irrigation will be gravity fed, as the tank is located higher up the hill than the vines, so no pumps etc will be required.

Winter food production is underway with several different seedlings planted in the greenhouse and a recent addition of some seed tray tracking made up from old fridge shelving has improved the set up. We are also trialling planting peas between the Tempranillo vines, not only as a cover crop but hopefully to harvest for eating. At least 8 different varieties from Sugar Snap to Snow peas were planted throughout the vineyard and many have already emerged. The Pink Lady apple tree has been pruned and some of the other fruit trees like the almond and nectarine have already begun flowering.

NEWS FROM THE WINERY

Due to the reimposition of COVID restrictions, unfortunately we've had to close the Cellar Door to visitors for the foreseeable future. Although not ideal, this has given us time to work on the new wine shed cellar door space, adjacent to the winery. Stay tuned for more details on this exciting new project!

Winter is here!

WINTER IS HERE! 

A new logo, bees and more wine!

Like everyone these last few months, we've been in lockdown here at 3DE. It has been a bit like Groundhog Day lately but we've been using the time in isolation to work through the "to do" list and have made pretty good progress so far. Vintage 2020 was pretty hectic this year but all the 2020 wines are now safely resting in barrel and tank. We've also bottled the last of the 2018 Tempranillo RESERVA along with a small batch of Grenache ready for the rescheduled launch in September. Due to Covid-19, the Long Lunch Launch for the 2019 wines scheduled for April had to be postponed until September however we opted for a virtual online launch and have been busy delivering wine across Melbourne and the Heathcote region to our loyal supporters.

Our little 6 x 6 metre winery space was filled to capacity this year as we processed not only our own Tempranillo but several other batches of locally sourced different (Spanish) grapes. In the end there was about 2000 litres of wine made which for our little operation, was quite a lot and the biggest vintage we have undertaken to date. Stay tuned for some exciting blends and single varietals next year. Our new logo design is now up and running and has been incorporated into our branding and is already on the new 2019 releases. A big thank you once again to Genevieve Haussegger for her graphic design skills and patience!

Last weekend (Queen's Birthday long weekend) we were finally allowed to re open the Cellar Door for wine tastings and sales. People who were eager to get out and about for the first time in a while were able to enjoy some delicious tapas around the fire with a glass of 3DE wine.

In other news, we recently welcomed about 30,000 new friends to 3DE in the form of a bee hive!

One evening at dusk, we relocated a hive from a friend in Heathcote and carefully set it in its new location near the vegie garden and fruit orchard. We're hoping that the bees will help the garden to be even more productive and having the bees around will also be beneficial to the vineyard during flowering in Springtime. A worm farm has also been added to the mix to help maximise garden yields.

Another exciting project that we undertook last year was the native garden. A patch of land in front of the house was reclaimed and worked over (thanks Leroy) and a variety of Australian native plants and grasses planted. Fast forward a year and the garden is thriving, providing not only a great sight out the lounge room window but a natural habitat for the local birds and our new bees!

Unfortunately due to Covid-19, we're unable to travel to Spain this year but we're planning to use the time here to get stuck in to the "Eco Accommodation" proposal and will hopefully be able to offer eco friendly, off grid retro caravans to rent before the year is out!

Stay up to date with all the latest news at:

www.threedamsestate.com.au

Summer wrap up 2014/15

The "long hot summer" that never came was a bit of a god send in the end at Three Dams Estate!

Last year we decided to advertise for helpers on the HelpX website and were inundated with applications from OS travellers offering to spend weeks or months living with us at the property. Basically we provide food and lodgings (and wine!) and in exchange for 4-5 hrs work per day.

We were really lucky to have a young French couple Alexis and Capucine contact us early after their arrival in Melbourne and on a hot day in early January, they made their way on the bus up to Heathcote. They were very keen to improve their English and at the beginning they were pretty shy to say much at all, especially Capucine who we'd nicknamed Nasi. Capucine is the French word for Nasturtium!

As well as being great people they were very keen to work and really helped us make good headway into the long list of summer jobs which included finishing the re weatherboarding of the house and painting the dining room among other things. We enjoyed many delicious meals and numerous bottles of wine together and much good conversation in English. Especially from Nasi! After 10 days together we were sad to seem them leave.

So after 6 years of work since moving the house up here from a Box Hill, we have finally finished the complete re weatherboarding including the insulation of all the walls. Earlier in the summer I installed and (expensive) roof exhaust fan that switches on automatically when the temperature reaches 30 deg in the roof space. This along with the floor, wall and ceiling insulation has enabled the house to remain around 10 deg cooler inside the house in the middle of a hot day.

Right now we are back to work in Melbourne but are making regular trips back to Three Dams Estate to harvest the over abundant Nectarine tree!

We are also expecting Ross Knight to come and rip the vineyard next week.