Hayes Family Wines - The Vintage Team for 2022
Pickers through-out Block 6
Hayes Family Wines, a Team of Many
Hayes Family Wines is inherently small, essentially now 3 permanent members in myself, my wife Kylie, and Andrew but we have many others that contribute significantly to what we do and are able to achieve through the year.
Growers
Marcus Schulz, a special man
Hayes Family Wines are supported by a collection of family growers across the Barossa Valley from the Fromms in Williamstown, the Angas’ in Eden Valley, to the Schulzs, Beckers, Hoffmanns and Wilkshes in the North.
These families have all grown grapes for over 100 years, some over 150 years. They all grow special grapes - grapes that we are very lucky to have.
Pickers
Our pickers typically come from far and wide, no day more so than on our Members’ Day. Each year, we have a core group of pickers from the Schulzs and the Hoffmanns led by Tania. She has been a godsend for our Estate Blocks which fortunately ripen before her own blocks in Ebenezer.
Tania Norton (aka Schulz) - Vintage 2022
Our other pickers came from the Barossa, Europe and of course all over Australia. Great people that had a good time I am sure.
Winery Workers
I loosely call them workers - they were unpaid and typically wore the brunt of our jokes, but my parents, Pat, Wayne and Tim each played an invaluable part in the success of Vintage 2022.
Pat (or Cleaning Pat) arrived early and left before the red grapes arrived but the winery has never looked better.
Tim arrived, cleaned, left and then came back to do some real work. The king of plunging and a person who knows Bert (our ceramic egg) more intimately than I am sure he would like. The 2022 Rouge will hold a special place in Tim’s heart! Pat could have learnt something from Tim’s commitment to the task at hand!
Wayne was back for his third vintage and found a way to add value with grapes in the house. Pumping over is definitely his specialty. His willingness to just get on with the job is especially important with Andrew and I in supervisory roles!
Mum and Dad also arrived a bit earlier than the grapes did this year, so the winery and vineyard surrounds have never looked better.
All would be welcomed back next year with open arms!
IT Support
Rod has remotely developed and supported our transition to the cloud this past year. For Rod, this was no major challenge as he is an IT genius. Most impressive however was that he remotely supported Andrew through the process. The fact they both survived that is incredible. What’s more, our records are up to date and we have some of the best systems in the industry!
Winemaking
Each year Andrew has a lot of deal with, this year was no different. We had a flood, some injuries, COVID, unexpected visitors, expected visitors, lunch. But day after day, month after month he gets up, albeit slowly and does what he has to do to make the best wine possible. And we are all very thankful for that!
Wayne, Andrew and Bundy join me for a Vintage Shot