Hunter Valley Vintage Estimates SoaR

Agriculture… What a fickle industry to be involved in, and after all the wine industry is an agricultural industry, given that winemakers are only as good as the fruit that a viticulturist provides them.

Three weeks ago there was much collective gnashing of teeth and increasingly furrowed brows amongst winemakers as the rain tumbled down in the Hunter Valley for the fifth day in a row. Dire forecasts were being bandied about.

Then the rain stopped. The sun came out. However it wasn’t the usual late January forty degrees.

It was a temperate 26-28 degrees, cool by Hunter Valley vintage standards, and there was a good strong breeze, drying out the tightly bunched fruit avoiding what seemed inevitable disease.

Day after day, it has continued – consistent dry warmth, ripening that precious fruit and bringing smiles and positive forecasts back amongst the winemaking fraternity.

Actually it is better than that; there is talk of wonderfully ripe chardonnay fruit, and reds that have patiently waited out the rains and again started their ripening process.

There is talk of the 2015 vintage actually being the quintessential Australian “cracker”!

Even Semillons, long thought either picked or consigned to the ground some weeks back. Former winemaker of the year Liz Jackson from First Creek almost conspiratorially whispers – “Thommo (Winemaker, Andrew Thomas) and I still have a block out there and it is looking spectacular’.

From one of the Hunter Valley’s iconic vineyards, Lakes Folly Chief Winemaker Rod Kempe “– for such a tough year our cabernet vines currently are absolutely beaming – bring on the sunshine”

Bruce Tyrrell, hailing from a lineage who are ever positive - “ On Thursday we bought in some of the cleanest and best cropping chardonnay grapes we have had in years. It is going to be a great year for our Vat 47!”

And so, after a roller coaster ride since early December, February sunshine, and a good forecast for the next week, you can almost hear Murray Tyrrell shouting from the grave – “Vintage of the Century!” Well not quite Mr Tyrrell, but from the jaws of despair, the Hunter Valley looks like securing a very, very good vintage.

Agriculture… Yes a fickled industry – but sometimes you actually do win!

Image by Chris Elfes - Copyright