Tim's Ravings

It rained. A lot. Like it used to. Fantastic. The soil profile filled up and stayed full which is ideal for winter.

The clovers, beets, radishes, and wheat of the cover crop went nuts, and were repeatedly slashed with the cuttings thrown sideways to mulch the area under vine. It wasn’t especially cold. The frost resistant mid-row plantings and the native grasses of the headlands stayed remarkably green and beautiful throughout. Pruning was completed in house.

The new Chardonnay was 2-budded (cut back to the base of the trunk to boost vigour), Block 2B was pulled out, the rows deep-ripped and posts, wires and dripper line laid out in readiness for Spring planting.

It kept raining. Less fantastic… creating challenges for the team, even though we remain grateful that it healed the earth and the vines. The soil profile remained full throughout early spring. Lovely, even bud burst, great conditions for fruit set resulting in good numbers of big bunches.

Very vigorous canopy growth in late spring saw the vines really sucking up the water. A never-ending cycle of spraying and slashing with everything growing like the clappers (vines, mid-row crop and weeds / grass on the headlands). Hedging of canopy on 60% of vineyard to reduce leaf cover and allow sunlight and air to reach the grapes hiding beneath. We dodged some storms with hail.

An extremely hot spell at the end of November provided some much-needed stress, put the brakes on canopy growth, and focused the vine’s energy on the fruit. Hot and wet = humidity, plus overcast days = perfect breeding ground for downy mildew. The vineyard team fought back valiantly. Downy destroys leaf and berries and is a serious threat to yields and quality.

… And then it kept raining, across a large number of small rain events resulting in the greatest disease pressure we’ve ever faced (but avoiding the flooding and challenges created by the 2010/11 deluge, so at least we could get on the vineyard to work and do something about it).

It’s been beautifully cool, significantly cooler than Sumer 2019 (mean maximum temperatures of 28.35 vs 34.3). February felt autumnal, with cold nights regularly below 10 degrees and crisp mornings.

Despite the stress (compounded by the high stakes from the lost 2020 vintage), it’s a source of deep satisfaction to be tested by such extreme conditions and to come out on top as we have.

Harvest has been slow and steady, with the varieties ripening one by one, so we have avoided the usual juggling act of competition for resources in the winery. Yields are good (great in the circumstances) and the fruit is stunning - clean and elegantly flavoured with refined acids and lovely tannin structure.

Storm systems are everywhere bringing the threat of hail, the risk of splitting grapes and further disease pressure. Significant rainfall will slow ripening and prolong the harvest increasing our exposure to risk.

The Whites and Rose are through fermentation and looking fantastic. They are resting on lees and will be prepared for bottling in the next couple of months. Today, 8th March, we’re heading into a huge week as we pick our first red grapes from the estate (3 weeks later than in recent years) – Shiraz from Block 10 and 18, and Cabernet from Block 3. The grapes are clean and beautiful and taste fabulous on the vine; juice colours are vibrant and intense and the chemistry parameters are all in the sweet spot – all indicators of the excellent quality we are expecting from this vintage.

As we did in 2011 and 2012, we will take a deep breath and back ourselves, trusting in the quality of our site and the hard work and skill of the vineyard team, and we will wait to pick our grapes when they are fully ripe and ready to make wine that is truly outstanding.

It’s what the vineyard deserves after the last 6 years and quite simply, we’re not about to start compromising on quality now.

Cheers,

Tim Stevens

PS - we held out until Saturday 21st March. The grapes were ready and 120mm of rain was forecast. Huge day, full winery, very happy winemaker!