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 underway led by the Pinot Noir.
Early July was cooler & wetter with fruit set around mid month, a week later than average. The Chardonnay was a little slower to the party but responded well to a very warm and sunny end to July and with warm, wet, and sunny phases into August. The date of fruit-set is important, it starts the countdown to harvest.
Veraison ( the start of ripening ) came later than usual in the last week of August, but things felt in generally good shape. It was however at this point that things began to swiftly unravel. End August weather became very erratic skipping between 28° & 14-17° days.
Early September saw some cold nights down to 2.7° with just 14° daytime highs. The month concluded with several days of heavy rain and clear cold nights which saw canopy temperatures down to 1.3° in the chardonnay block. Torrential downpours and cooler weather with intermittent sun carried on into early October. Cold nights culminated in a frost on Oct 11th with canopy temperatures down to -0.7°C. These were dreadful conditions for ripening our grapes. The cold prevented sugar accumulation in the grapes and the rain, diluted sugars and acids.
This year the quality of grapes did not meet our standards, we took the hit and decided not to pick. It’s the saddest job of all dropping fruit to the Vineyard floor in order to keep the vines in good shape for the following year.