Monthly Report - June 2021

At Scopri’s celebrating 50 years – he rated the 1989 Edelstone better, soo fussy!!

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For all of the origin stories of the vineyard, the locating of the property, the reasoning behind the planting of the varieties we have and the links to what we see in Bordeaux, the blends, and the wines – none of this would ever have come to pass if Tim and Yuko had turned around and said “No” while standing outside Cowaramup Agencies to when we were about to put the offer in on our property.  And to be honest they should have.  We knew nothing about growing vines and making wine, had no real concept of the hours required, and he and Yuko were still in their 20’s.  Madness.

But we had a vision, and we knew that if we waited that it would never come to pass.  One or two years later we would never have got the loans we needed, and a few more years on that we could never have afforded the property.  It was a now or never situation and away we went.

For many years Tim and Yuko came down 2-3 weekends a month and worked away at every job – from the marking out of the rows, to running out all the irrigation pipe, to training the vines and weeding under vine they did almost every job in setting up the vineyard as well as the all the early vintage work.  As I went in and out of full-time work and juggled work and vineyard, Tim moved up through the system transferring from mining company to mining company before moving into resource analysis and then to his current role as resource financier.  Which had him eventually move to Melbourne where he has been for the past 14 years.

As anyone would know, being partners in a business (and one that is as tenuous as a vineyard and winery), is pretty stressful.  There is the financial stress as you try and make ends meet, there is the emotional stress of not knowing how you will move forward, and there is the time stress where your extra hours are taken up by the business and are not your own.  We should have in all seriousness had many many arguments and tantrums over the years – and hand on my heart I can honestly say that Tim and I have never quarrelled with each other.  We have had moments of disappointment, moments of frustration – but we have always trusted each other to get through to the next stage.  Every fork in the road was talked through and resolved with clarity – no ulterior motives, no self-serving - with the best outcome chosen and agreed on by both.

Yes, Tim is a mighty warrior and friend – but there are stories which should be told, and I will pass on three here, if only to make sure that Yuko does not have him too big headed:

1. The day before an important job interview in the early noughties, Tim and I attended a wine dinner in Perth with guys that have become strong and fast friends all these years on.  After waaaay too much wine and followed by beers in Northbridge –we arrived back at Falkirk Ave, Maylands at some ungodly hour.  We were rotten drunk.  At 8am Tim came charging in panic stricken, his interview was on in 30 minutes, and we were both semi-comatose.  He made the interview in a bit of a state, he was applauded by the staff for his “balls” and yes, he got the promotion.

2. One of the vineyard jobs that was a bit tough due to the size of our bird nets was to “pull” them out and spread them across the rows just before vintage.  Gail and I had been doing this job for a few years, and Tim had come through and wanted to help.  Well, he was a little unfit having had a desk job for a while and after a few nets he was exhausted – tapped out – and it did not help when Gail did mention to him that she did twice as much as he had done with ease the day before.

3. Tim has this habit of questioning me in a lighthearted way – and when working in the vineyard this, on occasion, used to infuriate Yuko.  Once while we were working in the Marsanne, Yuko had asked how many vines were missing on the 2 rows – I said 9, as I had counted them the day before.  Tim immediately said “Nah, there is more than that” and proceeded to count out exactly 9 while we walked out the row. He then turned around and said something like “Just as I thought” as Yuko flapped her arms in exasperation.

I have been lucky enough to know Tim for just over 25 years and he is a really great guy.  I could not do all that he does for Blue Poles, and he would say the same of me – but we never feel that one’s work is more valuable than the other.  It is a true partnership, and I am very grateful to have had him and his family be integral in our winery and effectively, existence – because if he had not of said “Yeah, why not” all those years ago in Cowaramup then there would not have been all these delicious wines that many of our comrades have shared and enjoyed over the years.

Santé Tim!

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Winter woolies...

It has been cold, and it has been wet in Margaret River.  June has been very wet for the time of year with four days having between 25-50mm of rainfall flooding out the fields and some sort of rainfall for most of the days of the month.  As indicated, the dam was overflowing by 16 June – the earliest I can recall – and grass is up around the knees having been growing since February!  With the big rain falls coming through there has been some spectacular sunrises with “no filter” required as the sky filled with red before we were pounded by weather once more.

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