Vintage 2021
Every growing season and vintage has its own story… with some more memorable than others. This one will stand out, not only because of the tricky conditions created by covid but also for the impact that the changing global weather patterns are having.
The covid induced labour shortage really hit straight off the bat as we launched into pruning. Many wineries pruned early as they, and us included, were concerned about finding enough trained workers to prune through the mountain of vines needing to be pruned prior to budburst in September. Just in time we managed to pull together a small team, much less than the usual 100 strong gang we would normally utilise. Pruning took much longer but we made it through in time.
Early pruning combined with a very warm winter resulted in budburst about two weeks ahead of normal. Across the season the vines didn’t slow down at any point and we remained two weeks ahead right up to harvest.
The warmer weather continued throughout Spring and into December with the exception of two decent frost events. Fighting frost is always spectacular and this year was no different. These frost events were more nerve racking that usual as we had more green growth on the vines than we usually would have at this time of year. These frosts were long (starting around 11pm for us) and lasting through till 7am. Nights like these are all-nighters for us as we are sit on tenterhooks, aware that without the wind machines working we would undoubtedly lose our entire crop of fruit.
November swung around with our next challenge. An unusual cold snap, wet with low temperatures set in as we reached the midway point through flowering of most grape varieties. This was enough to reduce crop yields by 30%. For Novum this particularly affected our Quarters and Riverbrook vineyards (Pinot and Chardonnay) but luckily our Syrah flowered slightly later and wasn’t affected.
Humid weather in December produced some powdery mildew pressure which was soon gone by January when we had some of the hottest days that we have ever experienced in the Brancott Valley with our Syrah reaching up to 40 degrees Celsius over 3 consecutive days. Our Syrah loved this.. while our other varieties not so much!
Then finally we reached the pinnacle of the growing season, harvest. We hand picked our chardonnay the earliest ever on the 4th March (usually it would be around the 20th). Despite picking earlier than normal all of our fruit reached optimum ripeness and in particular the flavour of the chardonnay on the day we picked was the most intense and we have tasted in the 5 years we have harvested this parcel of fruit.
Even though crops are well down we are thrilled with the quality of fruit that came from our special vineyards sites this year. These wines will stand out for their fruit purity and balance.
End.