21 February 2023
It really is the most exciting time of the year! Vintage kicks off tomorrow, with Chardonnay being the first fruit off the vine and into the winery. We chatted with Nick Brown about the growing season and how the vineyards are looking as we head into harvest.
“After a cool, wet spring and growing season, the weather dried up going into mid-summer. January and February were quite dry, which was good. There is a lot of foliage cover in the vineyard, which we have been trimming back to get some airflow and sunshine onto the fruit. It will be a moderate crop load, nothing too high or too low. A new block of Durif needs some thinning over at Carters Vineyard, but the crop levels are healthy.
For those who may not know, crop thinning is when we decrease the yield of bunches on a vine by cutting some of the bunches off and getting rid of those so the vine has fewer bunches to look after, making sure that they ripen evenly as we go into the harvest time. This results in better quality wine because a vine can only put a certain amount of nutrients into its bunches. If the vine has fewer bunches, the remaining bunches will be better cared for.
Our organic vineyard up at Mount Ophir Estate is ticking along; it looks really happy. The Shiraz looks like it has a good crop. We have been through and made sure it has been crop thinned, so it's carrying a nice crop load rather than anything too heavy.
Our St Leonards Vineyard Cabernet Franc, affected by the spring flooding, will produce a smaller vintage in 2023, perhaps a couple of tonne.
The Old Vine Shiraz at All Saints Estate (1920), affected by flooding, won't be used for vintage 2023. Because of flooding, the fruit is at a lower quality level than we want for such an iconic wine. Our All Saints Estate Old Vine Marsanne (1959) looks happy with an average crop load. It has been looked after by the vineyard guys beautifully and is very content.
The new baby Durif vines at St Leonards Vineyard look happy also. It was a good year to plant them, having wet soil for them to wake up to, so they are kicking along well. It's exciting to get half that block planted and then the other half this spring. The new Durif at Carters Vineyard is flying along as well.
In 2021 we started harvest on February 4thand in 2022 it was February 14th. This year we kickoff tomorrow, the 22ndof February. We will begin to pick whites at the end of this month, and then reds will be in mid-March. Everything is later, but it will come in a hurry. So rather than a three-month vintage, we're looking at a six-week vintage.”
March is an excellent month to follow us on social media as I’ll be live broadcasting from the winery.
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