Christmas Newsletter

Well Christmas is upon us and 2011 looms. I won’t go into the vagaries of the weather, that has been well covered by Paul on our new page the Winemakers Diary. Paul wrote this originally for the magazine 'Yarra Valley Ranges and Country Life’. I liked it so much I asked him to make it a regular feature on the website and he has agreed to update it monthly. A regular insight into the ruminations of the winemaker and the state of the vineyard in Paul’s stream of consciousness style should be good fun.

Given the fact of daylight saving and the long twilight at this time of year, Yarra Yering along with three other wineries in our immediate area have decided to extend our trading hours for December, January and February. For the rest of December we will be open at the cellar door till dark on Fridays and Saturdays. In January and February we will extend this to include Thursdays as well. The evening views from Yarra Yering over the Yarra Valley are quite spectacular and we invite you to share this special time as dusk settles over the hills and vineyards.

The other participating wineries are Oakridge, Dominique Portet and Punt Road.
We have had a quite fascinating new arrival on the lilypond here. A pair of ‘Australasian Grebe’ or ‘Little Grebe’, have set up home on a floating nest in the middle of the lilypads and are now caring for the eggs they have produced. They apparently are capable of producing two to three batches? if that’s the correct collective noun, of eggs in a season. We are watching them closely in anticipation of some chicks on the pond soon. They are very shy and easily disturbed so if you come to the winery please don’t go too close.
They are just one of the prolific signs of growth and new life all around us after what has been very nourishing, dare we say drought breaking spring rain.
So with the new year on our doorstep all of us here at Yarra Yering wish you all the best for the festive season, we will be closed at the cellar door for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day, but invite you to visit at any other time during regular trading hours.

Merry Christmas
Tim Hampton