This is a most unusual season – with vines growing at an enormous rate and requiring additional labour to keep them “under control”. A wetter and cooler spring and early summer meant we have barely started irrigating and the vines look very healthy with powerful canopies. Weather conditions at flowering were somewhat fickle – showers and cool overcast days interspersed with the occasional warm sunny days has resulted in an average fruit set with the anticipated “hen and chicken” berries showing up in many vine blocks. This will mean these strong canopied vines will have more than enough ripening “power” to see some excellent quality fruit coming off and maybe a slightly earlier finish to vintage. Right now we are scrambling to get the bird protection nets on pretty quickly!

Our vines are waking up and a new season is about to begin!  We are seeing the first signs of ‘budburst’ in our Chardonnay (always an early starter), and our Pinot Noir vines are not far behind.  Pruning of our “late varieties” has just been completed  so roll on spring!  We’ve had about the wettest winter I can remember for several years, and it’s the first time for a while that the soil profile has been properly wet. It was a relatively mild winter so it’s not surprising that budbreak is looking about 10 days early.  The last few have been very like spring – cool nights but really sunny and quite still days interspersed with the occasional weather front passing through. After last season’s very warm conditions we are expecting a good “potential” crop – but of course that will depend a lot on what Mother Nature throws at us over the next few months. Never a dull moment in this game – but so far so good!

Cheers, Fred

We are well into picking one of the earliest and most compressed vintages I have seen.

The sparkling Chardonnay and Pinot Noir we recently picked from Bream Creek was absolutely perfect and some of the best fruit I have ever seen. Now we have table Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in our sights with some fabulous Schönburger fruit close behind. One of the surprising aspects of this vintage is just how early the Sauvignon Blanc grapes are for this time of the season – they are usually quite unpalatable at this stage! Riesling as well is far more advanced than usual and developing some magnificent flavours.

It looks as though 2016 will be among the best and most interesting vintages we’ve seen for a while!

Cheers

Fred

This season is probably the direst I have seen in over 30 years.  We have been irrigating for months and are fortunate in having water still available.  The vines are obviously enjoying the heart and the crop looks great!