WOW!!
A lot has happened since I last wrote in December 2019.
We had an amazing festive break and came back re-energised and ready to take on 2020 with great vigour.
Then January kicked off like no other.
The fear of a potential Third World War starting with the tensions between Iran and the USA, the devastating Wildfires in Australia, Brexit finally happening (almost went unnoticed), the possible impeachment of the Donald Trump, a locust plague in Ethiopia and now the all-consuming Covid-19 Pandemic!
Some of these events feel like they happened a decade ago, so much has happened in such a short time.
During all this we were starting a new and exciting adventure of doing our first harvest outside of the Tokara Cellar in over 20 years.
I had secured space in two separate wineries for the 2020 vintage. Making all of my whites in one cellar and most of my reds in another.
The season had been good to us so far with a pretty good growing season leading up to the beginning of harvest. The first day of picking was the 16th January for the Verdehlo which was pretty much a normal date to start.
The rest of the whites continued like this with stunning acidities in the musts, moderate sugars and amazing flavours.
By the middle of February all the whites were in the cellar.
From the beginning of February we were subjected to continued heat and dry weather and things started to ripen quickly with Merlot coming in in the middle of February and we basically finished picking within 4 weeks of this. Making this the earliest I have ever finished harvest, with even the Kika (Noble Late Harvest Chenin blanc) being picked before the lockdown happening.
Everything came in with perfect ripeness and stunning flavours. Even with the heat we were still left with great acidity and freshness in the musts and resultant wines.
We have some beautiful wines in the cellar and some new vineyards which I have been trialling this year have turned out to be exceptional.
There will be a new Chapter from 2020 but we will reveal that at a later date.
Update on Lock Down Restrictions
We are restricted from shipping wine locally as well as abroad but we are still permitted to sell wine, we will only be able to send it after the lockdown.
Please go to our online store by just clicking this link www.milesmossopwines.com.
All our wines are available to be purchased with free delivery to your door once the lockdown period is over.
The first 2 weeks of Lockdown was spent wrapping up harvest in the cellars with last week being a period of catch up and consolidation.
We plan to start introducing our various wines through live online tastings starting this week. They will be broadcast on all the social media platforms I am active on. So if you would like to watch them please look out for updates on Instagram @milesmossop, Twitter @milesmossop and Facebook Miles-Mossop-Wines.
I will also be sending out updates of these tastings using this Newsletter platform.
Recent Accolades
We are very proud of some recent ratings and scores to come out of the USA recently.
Our wines were recently tasted and rated by Anthony Mueller of Robert Parker Wine Advocate and our Kika 2017 rated 93+ points.
And in Wine Spectator last month Aleks Zecevic rated the Saskia 2016 the outstanding score of 91 points.
We are wishing everyone and their families a safe and healthy Lockdown period wherever you find yourself.