After a real sumer then a real autumn we are really having a proper winter! Cold, wet and windy in Gisborne was a norm that was disrupted by the decade long drought. This uncomfortable nostalgia is welcome for vine dormancy and soil moisture but makes for robust pruning conditions which ensure we draw upon the the very best thermal wear. With this a few things are certain; the job has to get done and every evening after pruning warmth derived from water, wood, food and wine is enjoyed for its elemental reviving gift.

The last of the 2011 wines are now bottled and starting to emerge from their subtle trauma. The wines of this vintage are really evolving beautifully and are such a joy for their seductive aromas and pure, intense, flowing palates. They certainly require another twelve months or so to really begin to show their truest form and will improve for many years onwards.

A quick note on the just completed 2012 harvest and season. The spring of 2011 indicated we were in for a similar season to that that led up to the 2011 harvest; rain and humidity and very slow ripening. Things changed, however, and changed again and again. December saw cold, windy weather disrupt the flowering significantly. From late December to late February we received barely a drop of rain and had eight weeks of contrast to the start of the vines’ season. Then, what was for many harvest interrupting, a deluge of 150mm of rain freshened the vines, pushed them through veraison and a stunning run of perfect autumnal weather ripened the very small crop. At this early stage, despite the meagre volume of wine, 2012 looks very exciting.

The summer has finally emerged from another very wet spring. This growing season we have moved straight from a wet, warm spring to a cold, unstable early summer and now to the typical January weather we expect. Quite a change to last summer which had staggeringly high rainfall.

December, our important period requiring stable, warm weather for flowering, saw high winds, rain and cold snaps. Consequently, the crop level is quite reduced and our expectation is for a very moderate yield. Quality is, of course, our primary focus and we are hopeful of making some intense wine at low yields. We are looking at yields around three to four tonnes per hectare this year whereas our aim would be to crop around five tonnes per hectare.

We have recently racked and returned to barrel the 2011 wines post malo lactic and they are looking quite promising. It was a difficult year viticulture wise however the harvest, fermentations and barrel maturations have progressed very well. The chardonnays are mineral and intense with excellent length and balance. The pinot noirs are perfumed, spicy, textured and harmonious and will cellar very well. The Pyrette shiraz is deliciously mineral, earthy, complex, creamy and balanced.

We begin bottling some of the 2011s in late February and the remainder will be bottled in July.

Amongst ourselves, and to some winemaking colleagues, we said we might not make it. Many didn’t make it this year. There were a myriad of different challenges and anxieties to overcome and the feeling from November to April was that at any point the crop could be lost. This season more than any other we were ever focused and attentive to what the vineyard needed in response to the incredible weather conditions.

For eight years now we have not used any systemic fungicides. It is now six years since we have applied systemic/chemical sprays for weeds – now we use straw mulch and slashing. We do not use systemic applications to eradicate pests. Our focus has been to promote life forces rather than to apply death to control our vineyard environment. This year we held firm to this regime with the exception of two systemic fungicide applications, the first in eight years, to the foliage in December. There was a temptation to used anti botrytis fungal sprays on the ripening fruit but we had done so much work to have an open, clean, airy canopy we felt more comfortable to take the risk than spray. Also, we dropped 30% of the overall crop on the ground before veraison/ripening as we didn’t want fruit on small shoots or in clumps where fruit ripening rates would be compromised and disease would be more likely to develop with bunches touching one another. Also, a larger crop would have required another week to 10 days of ripening and this was clearly not the season to risk exposing the fruit to extra adverse weather events.

As a reward for the hard work April provided some important warm, sunny classic autumnal weather and the flavours and sugars developed beautifully. The pickers were very diligent in removing any fruit not in optimal condition and the quality of the grapes arriving at the winery was quite remarkable. All the pinot noir has been pressed out post fermentation and is resting in barrel. There are still some barrels of chardonnay fermenting. Overall, the volume of wine is very reasonable (30 tonnes from 16 acres/6 hectares) and, whilst clearly early days, the style of the wines looks to be intense and balanced. For this stage the wines are representative of their site and usual style.

Since when was the sub tropics moved to southern Victoria? The cool, elevated Macedon ranges felt like central Victoria for a decade and now we feel like grape growers in Byron Bay. Without the beach, sadly.

Dams that did not fill for a decade have continually overflowed from December to now. Long term, great for the landscape. Short term, a lot of focus on the vineyard with tractor work, shoot removal, fruit dropping, trimming and broken sleep wondering what the rain and humidity is doing to the canopy.

So far the vineyard is healthy and fruit is clean. We will see. The first veraising berry was seen yesterday so we are still 10 days away from getting right into the colour change and sugar accumulation phase. After that we will need around six weeks to achieve ripeness. It looks to be a long, humid, frustrating push to harvest. We will delay putting the bird nets on as long as possible so we can continue to work on the canopy. I was speaking with Stuart Anderson last week and asked if he’d ever seen a season like this in his 50 years of wine life. “Never’ was the response. Sure, summer rain events and thunderstorms had highlighted some growing seasons but never the continual humidity and frequency of tropical weather being pushed south.

On a joyous note, we bottled the Composition Chardonnay, Composition Pinot Noir and Pyrette Shiraz from 2010 last Sunday and they are all looking to be of excellent quality. Sure, they now need several months to settle but the harmony and depth of the vintage is very pleasing and come release time in June they will be opening up again. The Quartz, Original Vineyard and Block 5 will be bottled in June and they have wonderful depth and structure.