TLDR
- Tuesday was bottling day for the 2025 Pinot Noir - we did it all on site
- Day before: collecting bottles and Diam corks - because nothing happens without a bit of running around first!
- Borrowed the bottling machine from Cold Acre, corking kit from Lyons Will - we love our community!
- Boxes hadn't arrived, so we grabbed a picking box from Kilchurn and made it work
- 600 bottles made, all by hand - labelling, waxing and boxing still to come when the boxes were delivered (3 days later!)
What does the day before bottling like?
Mostly driving, TBH. We needed bottles and we needed corks, and neither of those things live in our shed. So Monday was spent collecting the standard bottles we'd ordered and picking up our Diam corks at the same time.
Diam corks are what we use at Northern Hope. They're technical cork closures - made from cork granules - and they're consistent, which matters a lot when you've only made 600 bottles and you can't afford any of them going wrong. No cork taint, no nasty surprises when someone opens a bottle at Christmas. Just good wine, doing what it's supposed to do. Get everything in Monday, so Tuesday can actually be about making something.
What about the boxes - did they arrive?
They did not. Not on Tuesday anyway. Our boxes were yet to be delivered, completely unbothered by the fact that we had 600 freshly bottled wines that needed somewhere to live.
So that morning we drove to Kilchurn, grabbed a picking box, and used that instead. Worked perfectly fine. Sturdy, practical, does the job. A picking box probably wasn't designed with finished Pinot Noir in mind but it absolutely did not complain.
The boxes turned up three days later. Which means labelling, waxing, numbering and boxing are still on the list - a job for another day.
If you're interested in who else is making wine around here, we did a full guide to Lancefield wineries - worth a look if you fancy exploring the area.
What does "doing it all by hand" actually mean?
Exactly what it sounds like. Every single bit of it. We hand-picked the fruit - if you haven't read about our 2025 harvest yet, go and have a look, it was quite the experience.
And everything after that is done the same way. Bottling, corking, labelling, waxing, numbering, stamping, boxing - all of it, by hand, one bottle at a time. Is it slower? Yes. Is it sometimes absolutely exhausting? Also yes. But every bottle that leaves Northern Hope has been handled by us personally, and we think that matters.
We're making wine because we love it - and because we want other people to love it too.
What does the 2025 Pinot Noir actually taste like?
We may have had a sip or two during bottling. For quality control purposes, obviously. And it's delicious. The Macedon Ranges is one of the coolest wine regions in Australia - proper cool climate, slow ripening, the kind of conditions that make Pinot Noir do something really special.
2025 gave us exactly that. Good acidity, lovely fruit, the kind of wine you open and then immediately wish you'd bought more of. We're not here to talk at you about tannin structures and malolactic fermentation and whatever else.
We just want you to drink it and enjoy it. That's the whole point. 600 bottles. That's all there is!
FAQs
How many bottles did you make in 2025? 600 bottles of Macedon Ranges Pinot Noir - that's the full production run for the 2025 vintage.
What corks do you use at Northern Hope? Diam closures - a technical cork made from cork granules. Consistent, reliable, and no cork taint.
Do you really do everything by hand? Yes - hand picking, bottling, corking, labelling, waxing, numbering, boxing. Every bottle, done by us.
Where can I read about the 2025 harvest? Right here - 2025 vintage at Northern Hope. It's a good one.
Do you have netting on the vines? We do - and if you're curious about vineyard life in general, we also wrote about how to repair ripped vineyard netting which is exactly as glamorous as it sounds.
Can I buy the 2025 Pinot Noir? Yes - head to our product page or come and visit us for a tasting at Budburst 2026. 600 bottles goes quicker than you'd think.
