Vin 888 and its committed and highly-skilled growers share a philosophy about quality. The vineyard is in the heart of the Yarra Valley, Melbourne’s icon growing region and the company’s current production capacity is 400,000 litres and storage capacity is 450,000 litres.

Vintage 2002/03
During the 2002 vintage - the majority of the fruit came from Red Cliffs in the Murray Darling region. As a general rule, the warmer growing regions produce their finest wines in the cooler seasons. 2002 saw the Murray Darling region of Victoria experienced its coolest ripening season in 100 years (in fact the coolest ever recorded) with the fruit quality being the best in the last 30 years. The total production for the 2002 vintage was approximately 22,000 cases.

The hot and dry weather that was experienced in the summer of 2003 generally reduced crop levels. But due to the meticulous care of the growers, the quality was very similar to the excellent 2002 vintage.

Vintage 2004/05
The cool climate vineyards in the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula experienced some wet weather during the ripening periods. However, we were lucky to pick all grapes in perfect condition. The white wines show good acidity and great clarity of fruit. The Yarra Valley Cabernet Sauvignon shows massive colour density and good tannin extract which will ensure long term cellaring. In the Murray Valley, ripening of many varieties was extremely difficult due to a short heat wave which brought all ripening to a halt. It took sometime for the vines to recover and continue the ripening process. This phenomenon seems to affect Shiraz and Chardonnay in particular. Inspite of this condition the old vine Cabernet Saugvignon is of excellent quality with a very dense rich colour and firm tannin structure with generous fruit flavour.

2005 is a cool vintage with a lot of rain in the cooler regions. It seemed that proper ripening would be difficult however, almost perfect weather condition continued through out autumn resulting in excellent quality for most varieties. In the warmer areas, the cooler than usual condition lead to very early ripening and high quality.

W I N N E R

ROYAL MELBOURNE SHOW
1 Silver, 2 Bronze

ROYAL SYDNEY EASTER SHOW
3 Bronze

HOTELEX 2002 INTERNATIONAL WINE COMPETITION
2 Trophies: Best Shiraz (Big Fella 2001), Open Class (Reserve Shiraz 1999)

AUSTRALIAN INLAND WINE SHOW 2002
Silver, Bronze and Trophy (for wines made for customers)
3 Certificates of Commendation (recognizing the quality of yet unfinished wines)

AUSTRALIAN ALTERNATIVE VARIETIES WINE SHOW 2003
2 Bronze (Olsen Nebbiolo 2002 & Curran Reserve Shiraz 2002), Gold (Brumby Durif 2002)

VICTORIAN WINES SHOW 2003
Bronze (Olsen Coldstream Pinot Noir 2000)