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Vintage update
Early March we made final preparations
for vintage. The winery has been scrubbed, the picking
bins have been through the wash. In the vineyard
the crew was in the final stages of fruit thinning
of the late ripening varieties such as Syrah.
The winemakers are confident that we will get nice
flavours this year. Given the physiological maturity
of the fruit, we plan to pick at lower sugar levels
to keep the alcohols under control, while at the
same time achieving concentrated and intensely flavoured
fruit. So as of mid March it is all go. The first
of the Chardonnays and Pinots are in. The juice
is absolutely moorish. Very tasty, sweet, and aromatic.
Spring frosts in 2006 reduced our crops to some
degree. That’s mother nature. But in a good
season the staff are busy throughout the growing
season adjusting bunch numbers to our optimum low
yields anyway, so the seasonal blip did some of
this work for us naturally. The low crops and recent
warm weather mean many of our varieties have reached
really good flavour development. Marlborough’s
diurnal temperatures are really kicking in now,
with overnight lows of 4°C and highs in the
early to mid 20’s. That will help the late
varieties develop in the autumn sunshine. |
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