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| The intense colour of our Sangiovese grapes - gorgeous! |
"How's the grapes goin'?" We hear that a lot lately.
Most folks out here realise this is not shaping up to be an easy vintage. It has been a wet and mild summer - it's very unusual indeed to be using the winter doona in the middle of February! The vines are certainly loving all the natural rain - a big change from the drought years - but the wet summer means we are under fairly high disease pressure and we are on the lookout for downy and powdery mildew. On the bright side, there has been so much rain that we have not needed to turn on the massive pump to water the vineyard from the bore, saving us thousands in electricity (or is that millions these days?)
Ripening is very slow (in the orchard too - the nectarines were devoured by birds before they could ripen and the figs are still green). Wet weather like this can produce lots of growth and heavy crops, but we pruned hard this year, so our yields should be low and the quality high. We are not sure if we will be able to make a Dolce Nero from this vintage. For our "Sweet Black' we need to ripen Sangiovese grapes on the vine for weeks after the standard Sangiovese has been picked, but with all this humidity we just don't know if it will be possible this year.
But that's the magic of wine - every season, every vintage, tells its own story!
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