The College’s wine making program has been in operation for five years and continues to grow from strength to strength. The progam is unique in that the students manage every aspect of the process from pruning the vines to bottling the wine in time for the launch in September.
Winemaking commences in winter on the College vineyard which produces the Cabernet grape variety. Making the McAuley Park Cabernet is a year-long activity for the students. Last Friday 7 June, Year 9 Agriculture students and members of the MLMC Young Farmers club completed the highly anticipated bottling stage of the process. During this all-day activity, students ran the entire process which involved:
- sterilising the bottles
- putting CO2 in the bottles
- filling the bottles to the exact level
- corking the bottles
- capping the bottle with heat shrink caps.
During the bottling process, the students learn to operate a range of appliances such as vacuum filling equipment and also learn the importance of quality control at each stage.
We are feeling optimistic about this 2018 vintage. Willy Lunn (winemaker at Yering Station and long term supporter of the College’s wine making program) has tasted it and gave us some enthusiastic feedback about the quality of the wine. We’re also looking forward to feedback from our wine patron Suzanne Halliday in the run up to the wine launch in September.
