Vintage 2013 – more of the same, so far

At the time of writing, we are now roughly halfway through vintage 2013 and there is good and bad news to report. The bad news is really not so difficult because it is about yields, which have been down across most but not all varieties. We had indifferent weather through flowering, with regular windy and rainy conditions and low temperatures taking their toll. However, the really dramatic event occurred in the last week of November when a weather system produced a series of wet, windy days, culminating in a storm that dumped large dollops of hail over both the Moss Wood and Ribbon Vale vineyards. This was same system that blew part of the roof of the newly re-developed Terrace Hotel in Perth.

Semillon is the biggest disappointment being 50% down, while Sauvignon Blanc is down 30%. Who would have thought that in these conditions we’d pick any Chardonnay? After all, this is the grape variety that can catch a cold. Well, we managed a 5% above average crop! We can only speculate how big it might have been if the hail hadn’t come along.

In the reds, Pinot Noir was down 40% and Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon are both down around 20%. Merlot, the other grape variety that will catch a cold, produced a crop almost exactly on the average. As Erika, our resident American would say, go figure!

The good news is the quality looks very pleasing across the board. The whites have vibrant fruit characters, so aromas are lifted but there is good depth on the palate. For the reds, the situation is similar but the most exciting is the balance of the tannins. There is great fruit depth on the palate with density and concentration. Altogether, very encouraging.