It’s Tuesday afternoon. I have arrived in Oregon to a heavy and persistent haze and a familiar smell in the air. The area just outside Portland has been experiencing severe bush fires for the past two weeks. There are concerns about smoke taint in the...
Vintage is the key period in a Winemaker’s year when many long term relationships and friendships are born and on rare occasions left in tatters. In the harvest period there are long hours with people and logistics pressures. Shift work with days often 12-16 hours...
Well I’ve got to say the first 12 months of my life has been pretty sweet! Lately they’ve been calling me the little brown phantom and saying I terrorise the workplace here at Rob Dolan Wines, but I don’t really see it that way. Sometimes...
In speaking to the general public about my job, when I say I work in a winery people’s imaginations tend to romantic notions of sloping vineyards and sitting around sipping wine all day. Upon further discourse, many individuals are surprised to discover that wineries have...
Having the opportunity to visit wineries all over the world is a rather charming way to spend your time and money. It is so enjoyable in fact, that wine tasting has become a vacation in itself. And wine is a beautiful thing. It is a...
This year Rob Dolan Wines was very proud to host an event called The Big Roast for Cystic Fibrosis. The event began with the connection between Kirsty Bowness and Rob Dolan’s wife Jude Dolan who is a teacher at a local Yarra Valley primary school....
A quick summary. It’s a 9/10 at the half way mark of Vintage 2017 and it looks like the Yarra Valley has been fortunate on the weather front. After a cool early summer and a nervous January/Feb an amazing early Autumn spread through the Yarra....
Cellaring good wine at home is a great responsibility, it can be hard work. Firstly, you need to not drink it, you also need to control the temperature, UV, humidity, the list goes on. When you have a great bottle you want to get all...
Vintage 2017 is fast approaching. Lately we’ve had some cool nights and warm days, perfect for ripening grapes. We are down a little on yields due to some cool wet weather in spring but quality looks excellent. The vines are balanced and we are looking...
Vintage is now over and like waking up after a heavy night on the sauce we have found ourselves wondering what happened and how we got here. In a normal year, there is a natural order of ripening which gives us a chance to handle each...