VINTAGES

This was a very good quality harvest, with the size of the crop divided between above average for Grenache at McLaren Vale, to very small for Shiraz and Cabernet at Langhorne Creek.

As usual, the weather explains everything. It was a wet start to winter in June but then drier than average right through most of spring. The sub-soil started fairly wet from the previous season so the dry spring wasn’t a problem and the vines grew fast, without mildew worries. Then November arrived and the weather became a little crazy! The south east winds were persistently strong and we had one unusually hot day on November 10 when it reached 40 degrees in Adelaide, though fortunately the cellar door open days remained mild as you may remember.  Then there was quite heavy rain in the last week of the month. This was particularly concerning because November is the flowering period and we always hope for calm, settled conditions at this time. My diary entry ahead of the forecast hot day on the 10^th says “v. hot day forecast-will it affect the set?” Along with the winds and the wet weather which followed, it did! Except, strangely, for Grenache. The crops were well below average at Langhorne Creek on both the Shiraz and Cabernet. Why the Grenache at home sailed through is a bit of a mystery because it is a fussy variety when it comes to flowering and will usually set badly at the slightest provocation. This year it set a good-sized crop despite the conditions. I think drought seems to impact the Grenache set more than others and the good sub-soil moisture must have kept it happy. Whatever the reason, we were glad to have it!

Significant rain in the second week of December made us nervous about mildew but this proved to be a one-off event.

The dry, mild summer conditions which followed were ideal for quality. At this stage, it looked as though we were heading for another later harvest, until March suddenly turned quite warm, with 9 consecutive days over 30 degrees from the 5^th to the 13th. Combined with a small crop, this brought the Shiraz on early and we needed to move quickly from the 10^th of March to start harvesting. With the hot weather, we started picking early and finished around lunch time each day to avoid the worst of the heat.

At Langhorne Creek, the crop proved even smaller than we thought but we were fortunate that the Borretts were able to let us have some precious grapes from an adjoining block to top up, as they have in some other lean years past. So, despite the small crops the quantity of Reserve Shiraz and Cabernet we have been able to produce this year is only slightly below average. Thank you, George and Johnny.

At McLaren Vale, with the vines carrying a bigger crop which takes more sunshine to ripen, we were lucky to have the burst of early March heat to move things along. We waited a little before we began harvesting Grenache for Eclipse on 18 March and finished on the 26^th. We left some grapes out at BJs for Tawny, which we picked on April 1, after first picking all of the Cabernet at Langhorne Creek that morning…it was a big day!

We’re very happy with the wines. The Eclipse is very pure and refined, the Reserve Shiraz is really big and full of flavour and the Reserve Cabernet is also a beauty. And with the quality of grapes around this year, the Twelve Bells over-delivers.

We hope you’ll enjoy them!

Photo below: One of our favourite things to do on the way home from grape sampling in Langhorne Creek is to stock up on produce from one of the roadside stalls.

Main photo: Indi and Homer on a weeding day at BJ’s block in the spring leading up to the 2024 Vintage.