Tim's Ravings

In search of perfection. Robert Paul, possibly Mudgee’s finest former winemaker, pulled one of my favourite swifties a while back.

He told the local rag he was off to the Ord River in northern Western Australia to grow “hydroponic Grange” in temperature-controlled glasshouses. The paper splashed the story across its front page, proclaiming every vintage would be a perfect vintage!

The past decade of dramatic seasons has pushed me to think about the perfect vintage in Mudgee. We've come close ('09, '16) but I haven't seen it in my 23 years.

My perfect vintage has 3 parts:

The beginning: It starts in the autumn and winter of the previous vintage. Good rains and cold conditions give the vines a rest, and build moisture levels deep into the clay below the topsoil layer. In early Spring, vines grow quickly without any limiting factors. In the drought vintages from 2014 to 2019 the clay sublayer had completely dried up and vines had to rely on a root system about one-tenth their normal size.

The middle: Temperate conditions in mid to late November allow flowering and fruit-set to proceed without interruption and with good fertility. Immediately after fruit-set, moderate water stress allows the vine to focus on growing fruit. Too much rain and the vine will grow unwanted and wasteful leaf, to say nothing of disease pressure.

The end: Christmas onwards is a bit like the finals at the end of a footy season – teams have played well, got themselves into a good position, fit and in-form. The vines are healthy and primed to fill the fruit with the right balance of flavours, tannins, sugars and acids. BUT... Too much rain, and berries will burst. Too little rain will cause vines to drop the leaves needed for fruit ripening. Too much heat and sun and grapes get sunburnt and over ripe. Not enough sun and the damn things refuse to develop flavour and ripen seeds. The best flavours and tannins develop in the more moderate conditions of late February onwards.

A Vigneron's lot is to never be content, and there are times even in the best vintages, where I find myself obsessively watching the forecast, stressing about what is ahead.

The good news for us (and you!) is that at Huntington, we're well placed to manage the imperfections of each season, to always make excellent, and sometimes exceptional wines every year.

Each variety reacts differently to the weather, so the diversity in our vineyard allows us to chase exceptional every year. 2021 was "perfect" for Cabernet and whites (the Block 3 and Reserve Semillon will be truly exceptional) while prior drought vintages were amazing for Shiraz.

Our bit of Mudgee’s climate is moderated by the Great Dividing Range; our fine, clay-based soils are forgiving and responsive; we've learnt about water and nutrition usage in the vineyard; and we've finetuned our winemaking knowledge.

Spring is here and we have had a cool, wet winter. Maybe this WILL be the perfect year. Imagine the possibilities!

Cheers, 

Tim