Vintage 2016 update – February, 2016

We are now excitedly in the grip of our 2016 vintage, which started with us picking Sauvignon Blanc last Monday 8th February, in 39 degree heat, a rare extreme heat day for us! The next day we picked our D4 Clone Pinot Noir and then on Wednesday headed into the west block of our Ribbon Vale vineyard and picked the remainder of our Sauvignon Blanc and on Thursday our D5 clone of Pinot Noir, so that is now all our Pinot Noir picked and safely in fermenters, too. These Pinot Noir vines were planted at Moss Wood in 1977 and we are, we think rightly, very proud of them.

So now we have had the inevitable lull, it has been busy in the winery, the Pinot is in its open fermenters and has had its cold soak and has been seeded to commence its fermentation, which it is doing enthusiastically. The Sauvignon Blanc has been settled in its tanks and rack off its gross lees and seeded to commence its fermentation, which it is also dutifully doing. However, things have quietened down in the vineyard and we have waited until yesterday to decide to go in and pick the first of out Semillon today.

Both our Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir are roughly 2 weeks ahead of average. Yields are down slightly but quality is very encouraging, with particularly vibrant fruit flavours. We’re hopeful the mild to warm weather continues for all the other varieties and if it does, 2016 will be a good one.

We can report that the 15/16 growing season has been a good one, although somewhat variable. Rainfall during the flowering period was low and conditions were generally warm and favourable. The only disruption occurred with some cold nights in late November that caused problems for Cabernet Sauvignon. January gave us a surprise by delivering just over 100mm of rain. We haven’t had rainfall on that scale since 2000 and it did bring with it some concerns about disease. Luckily it came early enough that we didn’t get any splitting and managed to avoid any problems with rot.