VINTAGES

A cool, late vintage, the third in a row under the influence of a La Niña weather pattern and the coolest and latest of the three.

The very wet and rather cool spring delayed vine growth and kept us busy in the vineyards removing leaves to keep the canopy open and the downy mildew at bay. Then we had the cellar door flood event at opening time in November. The rain seemed never-ending and we wondered if we were going to get a crop at all.

As it turned out, it could easily have been much worse! Spring was the wettest on record for the Murray–Darling Basin, New South Wales and Victoria (since rainfall analyses starting in 1900) and rainfall was more than 3 times above average for much of western New South Wales and north-west Victoria. This resulted in major flooding in much of Victoria and New South Wales during spring and eventually, as the flood waters made their way down the river, from late December in South Australia. Many farmers were impacted, losing crops, livestock and fences. We were lucky, we only received the edge of that.

Following the very wet spring the weather changed course, with the rain easing from late November and a mostly dry, mild summer followed. This was just what was needed, allowing the grapes to slowly reach full ripeness whilst retaining lovely freshness of flavour.

The modest crop of Grenache on the Winery and BJs block at McLaren Vale was in perfect condition over 4 days of picking in late March and early April for Eclipse and the smallish crop of Cabernet Sauvignon at Langhorne Creek reached full maturity for harvesting in 2 picks on 26 and 27 April. We needed to keep the cellars closed from late afternoon for the Cabernet, to protect the ferments from the cold nights which were prevailing by now. All went well and we’re very happy with both of these wines.

The Shiraz was tricky. It loves a warm sun and there was barely enough of that in Langhorne Creek in 2023. The soil was also holding more moisture than usual, slowing things up. We were discussing all this with George and John Borrett whilst we were walking through the vineyard checking the grapes close to harvest. Should we gamble and wait further or should we pick?

At this point we realized there was a completely different course of action possible which had worked very well in the past. We could pick some of these grapes and co-ferment them with some Shiraz from Paul Petagna’s vineyard at Sellicks Beach, which ripens much earlier. We called Paul straight away to see if this was possible and it was all arranged at the last minute (hence ‘Minute to Midnight’, the name of the resulting wine which replaces the Reserve Shiraz this year) in response to the seasonal conditions.

It turned out to be a big day for the pickers. We started at Sellicks Beach gathering the Shiraz for M2M and this proved slow going because the bunches were quite small. Then we moved home to pick Grenache for Eclipse and by now it was late morning and everyone was starting to feel weary, with lots of work still ahead of us. I wanted to finish the Grenache pick that day if we could and my hopes were fading. Then the gang, mostly of Cambodian descent, pulled out their chairs and set up at the back of their cars for lunch. They brought out the silver stacked pots full of fragrant steamed rice, along with all kinds of vegetable, chicken and fish dishes and the mood suddenly changed! We’re always amazed by their delicious lunches on picking days… Rae says their home-made dishes could be served at many a restaurant! By the time everyone returned from lunch anything seemed possible and although we didn’t quite finish the block, we came very close.

In the end we’re delighted with all of the finished wines. The late harvest made the pace of work slower than in the hot years and more enjoyable. Harper was also around, in between his school work, which was helpful in the cellar. It was a late but very successful harvest and I really felt we had been third time lucky.

Photo below: We couldn’t resist taking this photo, outside the Bridge Hotel in Langhorne Creek. We were on our way to take some grape samples and the moment felt like it could be 1923 instead of 2023!

Main photo: Picking the Grenache Block on the west side of the winery.