Harvest and Autumn 2008 Wow!! - what a fantastic time of year on the vineyard.   Frosty mornings, bright blue skies, crisp clear sunny days and starry starry nights. From the beginning of Harvest through to when the last of the autumn leaves drift away is a very special time in Bendigo and is when the romance of growing grapes and making wine can truely be felt. The vines are now accumulating and storing energy for the next growing season and when they become dormant, the next major task will be pruning.  However, before we embark on what we consider to be one of the most important and most enjoyable jobs in the vineyard, it is nice to take some time, in front of a warm open fire, indulge in great conversation and have a glass of well made wine. Harvest was early for Lamont this year with the picking all finished on 4 April.  Climatically it has been a fantastic growing season, resulting in excellent quality and quantity of fruit.  It was once again a fantastic event having all of our loyal motorhome pickers back again as well as two wonderful Welsh girls who entertained us with singing their passionate Welsh National Anthem.  Thank you Nia and Kaz. Twelve Medals for Lamont After having been in the market place for five years now, we decided it was time to put our wines to the test and enter them in some competitions.  We are delighted that our Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Riesling have won 12 medals between them, at top wine competitions, the most recent being a Gold Medal at the Canberra International Riesling Challenge and an Elite Gold Medal at the prestigious Air New Zealand Wine Awards. We have always felt that our initial indepth research in regard to site location, soil analysis and climatic conditions, together with implementing specific vineyard practices, would contribute to, and produce, outstanding fruit quality.  With continuing our culture in the vineyard of uncompromising and enduring pursuit of best practices, and as the vines mature towards their first decade, our commitment to quality is now being realised. Vineyard Update - March 2007 The timing of the green harvest is at 80% veraison so that you can see which fruit needs to be removed as it lags behind.  If you carry it out too late, you will not know which fruit to remove as it will have all changed colour, but be at differing ripeness.  The implications of fruit at different ripeness levels in the finished wine are a major quality issue.  One of the viticultural themes at Lamont is to remove the variability that reduces wine quality. Craig Daly Viticulturist