We had the opportunity over Easter to meet up at with winery with Steve Bird of Bird Wines, the maker of the Big Barrel Pinot Noir, to join him for a tasting of juice from each and every barrel and tank to check out how the fruit was fermenting.
It was 9am, but that didn’t stop Kevin and myself swallowing a mouthful of each sample, until we realised there were over 20 of them. We then took the lead from Steve and the Indevin winemaker who were spitting it out after analysing the colour and taste of each. From this Steve could provide very precise instructions on how the barrels were to be handled in the coming days, everything is monitored and tracked, yet another example of just how much goes into producing great wine. Speaking of which, here are some of Steve’s one-liners from that session.
“She’s a brute”
“This is man wine, it’s big hairy and audacious”
"It’s like the inside of a cow”
“We have got ourselves something very very special this year”
So that is what you have got to look forward to when the 2014 Bird Wines Big Barrel Pinot Noir hits the shelves, in preparation for the big event we suggest you line up some big hairy men and see if you can find out just how dark the inside of a cow really is.