Harvest Reports

There are occasional years when there is just too much weather. With 20 years of Vine growing experience under our belts, we are used to adapting to seasonal variations.  2024 threw more at us than usual. A Sharp December cold snap gave way to a warm & very wet first quarter spurred by El Nino, followed by the cloudiest April in 50 years.  Bud burst was several weeks early with promising inflorescences emerging in May.  An exceptionally cool wet early June saw vine growth slow markedly. However, this gave way to a warm dry week end June with flowering well...

We have been growing vines for nearly 20 years. 2023 was perhaps the most unusual growing season that we have ever experienced.   A very dry January and February gave way to a wet March, which experienced the least sunshine since 1909.  Bud burst was a week later than average, with 80% initiation by 28th April.  Thankfully, we avoided early May frosts which can cause such havoc with the ultimate fruit potential. In fact, May was very dry and quite warm with temperatures building into a very hot and sunny June. We recorded 30° Centigrade on June 10th.   Fruit set came about...

The 2022 season was predominantly dry, sunny, and at times very hot. Growing season sunshine levels approached those of the radiant 2020. Our vines managed to dodge early frosts, and flourished with their deep roots in our clay soils. Flowering and fruit set came and went in early July in ideal conditions. The new vine plantings of recent years continued to develop well, but were beginning to look slightly drought-stressed as we moved into August. Mid-August rainfall came as an unusually blessed relief, rejuvenating the young vines and permitting decent berry swell in the older vines as veraison came and...

2021 was slightly less sunny than the golden 2020 growing season . Vineyards in the south east suffered a succession of late April frosts which forced greater reliance on secondary buds making for a more drawn out fruit set and ultimately lower yields. Harvest came slightly later than usual, although well inside the range of the last decade, in the second week of October. Bunch weights in the Pinot noir and Chardonnay were good, with phenolic ripeness giving good fruit flavours, especially in the Pinot noir, although sugar levels were at the lower end of the recent range. Good base...