Mother  Nature’s  mood during the 2016/17 growing season can best be described as languid and rarely has she raised her voice in anger. We had plentiful rain through 2016 and yet any that fell during Spring did little to disrupt flowering and wind and hail were noticeable by their absence.

She gave us some moments of concern when stormy weather loomed several times through February and March. In particular, on 10th February, we were a bit uneasy when the Bureau of Meteorology forecast 100mm of rain for our region but in the end, on each occasion she very graciously took the  wet weather around us. Talk about lucky!

Temperatures have been mild, with our hottest day being 4th January, when the mercury reached 36.70C. These conditions were perhaps not quite what our beach-going visitors were hoping for but the vines reveled in them and both Moss Wood and Ribbon Vale have rarely looked better.

At the time of writing, Pinot Noir, which got us underway on 4th March, and Sauvignon Blanc are both safely in the winery, both slightly up in yield and about 10 days later than average.

It might be asking a bit too much but if Mother Nature could indulge us with a classic, West Coast Indian Summer, we may just produce one of our very finest Cabernet Sauvignons.  We are looking at a very similar vintage to 1990 and it would be a thrill to make another one like that.