The Winemaking Journey: From Grape to Glass
Ever wondered what actually happens between those gorgeous vines and that delicious wine in your glass? Grab a glass (preferably of Koonara), and let’s chat about the winemaking process and how our 2025 vintage came to life!
The Year-Round Wine Adventure
Making great wine isn’t just about harvest time, it’s a year-round love affair with our vines. And let us tell you, our 2025 vintage has been quite the journey!
Winter: Sleepy Vines
Winter in Coonawarra is like the vines’ annual holiday. They drop their leaves, have a rest, and we get busy with pruning. Think of pruning like a good haircut, it shapes the vine for better growth next season.
This year, we finished pruning earlier than usual. Why? Well, the weather forecast suggested a cooler, wetter summer was coming, so we wanted to give our vines a head start on growing.
Our woolly little workers (also known as sheep) spent winter munching away between the rows. They’re our eco-friendly lawnmowers and fertiliser spreaders all in one! We also treated the soil to some lovely compost and chicken manure, basically a five-star buffet for the vines to enjoy once they wake up.
In Coonawarra, we always look forward to the arrival of good winter rains, knowing how vital they are for our soils. The moisture soaks through the terra rossa topsoil and is stored in the limestone below, creating a natural underground reservoir. This means when the summer sun arrives, our vines can tap into that stored water, keeping them healthy and helping our grapes develop rich, balanced flavours. Winter 2024 in Coonawarra was notably dry, making soil moisture reserves lower heading into the growing season.
Spring: Wake Up and Budburst
In spring the vineyard literally bursts to life with those little buds popping. This is the very beginning of this year’s wine, exciting, right?
Spring mornings can be frosty, so our giant fans will usually work overtime blowing warm air across the vineyard. (Picture a massive hair dryer keeping those delicate buds safe from Jack Frost.)
We gave our vines a spring cocktail of goodies: seaweed (like a multivitamin), fulvic acid (helps them absorb nutrients), potassium (for flowering and fruit), and silica (strengthens their cells). In human terms, it’s like giving them a green smoothie, good breakfast, and a strong coffee to kickstart their day!
We even used wood vinegar to deter hungry snails. As we like to say around here, “Sorry snails, this isn’t an all-you-can-eat buffet!”
Summer: Sunshine and Helicopter Parenting
The summer of 2025 was a scorcher! We kept the water flowing to keep our vines happy, especially since there were not the usual winter rain reserves to draw on. While the dry heat meant more work with watering, it also meant less disease pressure, fewer vineyard nasties trying to ruin our grapes. #winning
February was particularly hot, turning us into what Nicole calls “helicopter parents” of the vineyard. We were constantly checking soil moisture, vine health, and making sure everything was just right. It’s like sending your kids to school with the perfect lunch, sunscreen, and a reminder to drink water.
Being in Coonawarra means we harvest later than warmer regions, thanks to our cooler climate. This extra time on the vine is like slow-cooking a roast instead of microwaving it, so much more flavour develops!
Harvest: The Great Grape Gathering
Vintage 2025 kicked off with our whites, including our sparkling varieties and that lovely Moscato everyone’s obsessed with. The fruit quality had us doing happy dances between the vines, and the yields were fantastic too!
By March, we were in full swing. We picked our Shiraz on a perfect autumn morning, with our Cabernet following a week later. The buzz around Coonawarra confirmed what we already knew, 2025 was shaping up to be a vintage worth celebrating (and you know we know a thing or two about celebrations here at Koonara!).
By April, all our grapes were safely picked, and the vineyard started its picture perfect transition. Think rows of golden yellows and deep crimson leaves for as far as the eye can see. It’s a truly remarkable picture. Then the Easter Bunny brought us a little gift, some much-needed rain to give our hardworking vines a well-deserved drink before their winter nap.
Winery Magic: Where Grapes Become Wine
While the vineyard gets a bit of downtime after harvest, things are just heating up in the winery. This is where the winemaking magic really happens and where it gets even more fun. (I know, right, is that even possible? Yes, yes it is!)
Gentle Handling: Treating Grapes Like Royalty
At Koonara, we’re not into manhandling our grapes. We believe that good fruit deserves respect, so we handle everything gently, like you would a newborn baby or that expensive crystal your mother-in-law gave you.
For whites, our winemaking approach uses a gentle inflated pressing method. Imagine a big soft airbag slowly squeezing the grapes rather than crushing them. This technique carefully releases the juice without breaking too many skins or seeds, helping us capture all those crisp, vibrant flavours and keeping the juice pure and clean. We then ferment cool to lock in those fresh, delicate aromas and natural acidity that make our white wines so lively.
For reds, we extract colour and flavour with care, aiming for richness and depth without drawing out harsh tannins (that’s the stuff that makes your mouth feel dry). We also avoid pressing the grapes too hard, so we don’t extract the white, milky liquid from deep inside the seeds and skins, which can make the wine taste coarse or bitter. By managing the time the juice spends with the skins and seeds, and pressing gently, we achieve beautiful colour and flavour while keeping the wine smooth and approachable. This balance is key to making reds that are both expressive and easy to enjoy.
Just last week, we had our first proper tasting of the developing wines. And let me tell you, our 2025 Sauvignon Blanc is one to watch, it’s crazy good! As for the Cabernet, at this point in time, when the wine has just finished fermenting and is going into barrel, it’s a bit of an ugly duckling stage. But rest assured, after just a few months in oak, the wine really starts to come alive and will display those beautiful blackcurrant and mint characters that Coonawarra terroir is known for.
Barrel Time: The Slow Dance
All our reds head to oak barrels for a lovely, slow maturation. Choosing barrels is a bit like matchmaking. We need to find the perfect oak personality to complement our wine and strike the right balance between new (intense) and old (delicate) oak. Think of oak like a tea bag: it’s always the most intense on the first use, then becomes gentler with each subsequent dunk. This careful selection helps us craft reds with just the right amount of oak influence, allowing the fruit and terroir to shine through.
Different barrels bring different flavours to the party. Some add vanilla notes, others contribute spice, clove, or subtle toast. The type of oak matters too: French oak tends to give more elegant, fine-grained tannins and gentle spice, while American oak often imparts sweeter, richer vanilla and coconut notes. Even the barrel’s age, how it’s toasted, and the forest it comes from can influence the final wine. It’s a bit like choosing the right seasoning for your favourite dish, each choice adds its own unique layer of complexity and character. And for our wines, we believe French oak complements them best, enhancing their natural elegance and finesse.
The Koonara Difference: Vegan-Friendly and Low-Sulphur
Our wines are vegan-friendly and low in sulphur, not just because it’s trendy, but because we believe it makes better wine! Using minimal additives lets the true personality of our grapes shine through.
When it comes to harvest and winemaking, our low-sulphur approach means we’re super careful at every step. We start by maintaining our organic vineyards as the grapes that are produced naturally need lower levels of sulphur. We’re also careful about picking at optimal ripeness to get naturally balanced fruit.
Wine naturally contains particles that are removed through a fining process to help create a clearer product. Some wineries use fining agents like egg whites, but here at Koonara we use pad-filters, which makes our wine vegan friendly.
As for low residual sugar, we start by picking our grapes at the right baumé (that’s a fancy word for the amount of sugar in a liquid). For example, if grapes were picked at 12 baumé and during the winemaking process fermented to 12% alcohol, they would be bone dry with no residual sugar left. This lets the natural fruit flavours shine instead of hiding behind sweetness. This isn’t just better for your health, it makes our wines fantastic food partners and much more interesting to drink!
Bottling: Wine’s Big Day
When it comes to bottling, timing is everything. Our whites are bottled and released quickly so you can enjoy them at their freshest and most vibrant, capturing all those lively fruit flavours. Reds, on the other hand, take a slower path, spending anywhere from 12 to 24 months in barrel, depending on how each wine develops.
We taste them regularly throughout their time in oak, keeping a close eye (and palate) on their progress and making adjustments as needed to ensure every bottle is just right when it’s finally released.
From our Family to Yours
At Koonara, we aren’t just winemaking, we are creating bottles of joy to be shared at your table. Whether it’s a weekday dinner or your 25th anniversary, knowing our wines are part of your story makes all of our hard work worthwhile.
The 2025 vintage has been an absolute cracker, and we’re thrilled with how things are developing in the winery. Keep an eye out for these releases in the coming years, between you and us, they’re looking rather special! In the meantime, be sure to check out our 2020 releases (Ambriel’s Gift and Ezra’s Gift), our Wanderlust Cabernet Angels Peak Shiraz and Angel’s Wings Cab Sav Shiraz from the 2022 and 2021 vintages.
Want first dibs on our 2025 vintage wines when they’re released? Join our wine club for VIP access and 20% discount that’ll make your wallet as happy as your taste buds.
