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Ladies how about a relaxing beauty treatment at Kaye Poyner Beauty Therapy and Day Spa, 64 Barkly Street, Ararat (phone 53525297) or visit www.kayepoynerbeauty.com.au Kaye apart from being my wife and vintage time assistant winemaker runs her beauty therapy business aided by her lovely staff Rebecca, Roz, Tess and Grace. Their depth of experience and skills ensure that all of your beauty requirements can be catered for with care. Kaye and I are currently working on her website some of the services offered are facials, nails, aromatherapy, hot stone massage, massage, hydrotherapy and Vichy shower, Tuscan spray tanning, solarium, Intense Pulse Light treatment and electrolysis. While the ladies are being pampered the guys could visit the winery pick up a few bottles or just stroll down the main street of Ararat. The Vines Cafe is a few doors down from Kaye's shop why not drop in an enjoy their lovely food with a glass of our Massif Shiraz or other local wine.
The vineyard currently (04/07) is post harvest, our crop was tiny but what fruit we picked tasted fantastic and fairly sweet. The frosts that occurred between September 25 and October 27 last year caused the yields to be extremely poor especially at the vineyards of Great Western, Best's, Seppelts, Garden Gully and Kimbarra. From all reports the Shiraz quality is very very good but don't expect that there will be a lot of 2007's available in a couple of years. We harvested the Mount Ararat Shiraz on March 25 and this has been fermented and pressed out. Shiraz from Westgate is fermenting and should be pressed later this week after Easter. This ferment I've been temperature controlling and not exceeding 20 deg. C, usually I ferment Shiraz between 18-25 deg. So basically vintage is nearly completed with only one other small batch of Shiraz to harvest, it's been short and sweet although we did start a little earlier with a tank of Sauvignon blanc juice to ferment. Kaye has been requesting a white wine and there has been some interest in a white Massif by local restaurants. Next month we will be bottling the 2005 Shiraz but first cab off the rank will be the new Massif Sauvignon blanc 2007, this wine will be only available from cellar door including this website and local restaurants.
Since 1999 we have purchased Shiraz from Ted & Helen Robinson. Their Mount Ararat vineyard is situated on the eastern slope at about 500 metres above sea level and grows in the most amazing soil and rocky ground in this area. The vines are practically dry grown simply because there is hardly any water available and when it is available after a good rain it must be used sparingly. I really like this vineyard because the grapes have a spicy aroma and the wine is never too tannic, pH and acid levels are fine and the grapes are always nice and clean. The 2004 Massif is 100% Mount Ararat Shiraz, and the Black Label Grampians Shiraz is blended using about 30% from this site. It is from on top of this site where Horatio Wills rested in August, 1840 viewing the rolling downs extending westward to the Grampians calling the peak on the slopes 'Mt. Ararat' - 'because, like the Ark, we rested there'. Horatio settled at Lexington near Moyston and managed 120,000 acres where young Thomas Wills lived and played ‘Marngrook’ with the local aboriginal people.
Clayfield Wines is located at Moyston ‘the Birthplace of Australian Rules Football’ in the beautiful Grampians Region of western Victoria. The winery is just a stones throw away from the historic Lexington property. Thomas aged 14 attended Rugby School in England from 1850 where he learnt to play rugby and cricket. He was a fine natural sportsman and by 1855 was captain of the cricket team. Thomas returned to Australia in 1856 the news of his cricketing brilliance preceded him and the local cricket fraternity eagerly awaited his return. In 1858 he led the Victorian team to their first Inter-Colonial cricket victory over NSW, it was also the year in which he publicly advocated a winter sport for the cricketers. In May 1859 the Melbourne Football Club was formed and captained by Thomas Wills, the new game was widely accepted and soon enjoyed great popularity. The rest is great Australian history.