The start of vintage at Coldstream Hills

Vintage finally got (seriously) underway yesterday at Coldstream Hills, almost one month later than last year. The small House Block chardonnay produced eight tonnes of immaculate fruit, with great flavour and balance. This is the greatest amount off this 25-year-old block, which has always been a cornerstone for the Coldstream Hills Reserve Chardonnay. With all the rain (needless to say, irrigation has not been used in any of the vineyards this growing season) the concern was that berry-size would be inflated, and the ratio of juice to skin and pip reduced. In fact, the berries are small, but very even. It was the even nature of the bunches, and their number, which gave rise to the crop.

It's a busy time of year!

Time off from daily grind of 7am-3pm tastings for the Wine Companion, last night (Monday) with a wonderful dinner hosted by Jacques Thienpont and wife Fiona Morrison MW featuring the wines of Vieux Chateau Certan and the legendary Le Pin from ‘06, $3000 a bottle, and one was corked! Jacques Reymond (normally closed Monday night) opened specially for the dinner, the dishes showing – yet again – why this is Australia’s best French-based (with a strong fusion accent) restaurant. Off to an assignation with one of the three specialist dentist attending to various teeth this afternoon, then direct to Tullamarine on the way to Adelaide, thence tomorrow to the Riverland for an in-depth (forgive the pun) look at alternative varieties. An unplanned but fortuitous insight into the trials and tribulations of the rain-sodden Riverland will also be interesting. Return Thursday night to resume tasting Friday, then a one-day dash to Sydney as keynote speaker at Warren Mason’s Sydney International Winemaker’s Gala Lunch, returning tastings Sunday, then non-stop for the next 9 days.

What impact will the weather have on this years harvest?

As each day passes, firsthand observers on the ground in the Riverland and Riverina provide evermore dramatic reports on the rampant spread of mildew and botrytis. One of the big company purchasers, that went into this season looking to buy more chardonnay, had seven harvesters picking 24 hours in one day, and taking 12,000 tonnes of chardonnay off the vines. The trucks waiting to receive the grapes were crammed into a 30-acre space. That was 24 hours before the most recent heavy rains hit. It’s such a dynamic situation that no one can predict how many tonnes will come out of Australian’s engine room this year, and I’m certainly not going to try. But it could be a frighteningly small number.

A Tale of Three Yarra Vintages

2009: The vintage was largely over at this point, pinot noir judged unpickable by most producers (including their estate-grown fruit). Merlot, shiraz and cabernet were very problematical. The only bright point was chardonnay.

2010: Picking chardonnay began on Coldstream Hills’ home vineyard this day last year. It was the start of (another) early vintage, but one that was full of promise, and has delivered on that promise.

2011: Chardonnay sampled yesterday on our large home block was at 8 baume. Veraison is only complete in pinot noir and chardonnay, well behind for other varieties. A week ago, it was thought March 7 to March 10 would be a likely start for pinot and chardonnay, with a table wine (not sparkling) destination. Well, the current weather and the outlook for the next eight days doesn’t suggest any earlier start.

Noah’s Ark and Mount Ararat in the Yarra Valley

No one I have spoken to can remember so much rainfall in the growing season. Month after month the rain, as everyone knows, has continued, with regular periods of heavy rain. In the 24-hour period last Friday to Saturday 110mm were collected in the rain gauge at our (Suzanne and my) house. It is situated high on the Warramate Hills, with only forest (no roads or houses) further up the hill. But even here we have had water damage (of relatively minor extent). The Coldstream Hills winery and adjoining estate vineyards have not been affected, and in all our vineyards, constant vigilance and regular copper/sulphur sprays have prevented the outbreak of downy or powdery mildew, and botrytis. So far.

At this stage vintage will take place three weeks later than any vintage since 2002, and given a more reasonable weather pattern between now and early May, things are looking really good.

Others have been more affected. Franco D’Anna at Hoddles Creek Estate sent me the pictures of his vineyard and winery (pictured above), also on a hillside in the Upper Yarra Valley after 121mm on the weekend. Happily, the water did not rise further in the winery, so there is no damage, but a lot of cleaning up to do.

The success of the Orange wine region

The Orange wine region has two advantages: it has consistently produced a series of very good wines in recent years, and has an active PR business supporting it (David Cumming of Define Wine, david@definewine.com.au).

In a recent release he points out that its 1500 hectares of vines represents less than 1% of the national total. Its two most successful varieties, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, respectively represent 0.7% and 1.6% of the national plantings. Taste Orange Executive Office Kim Currie is understandably very pleased with the track record of Orange in the 2010 calendar year (coming, as it did, on the back of prior years with similar success). Five wines were in the Top 40 of the 2010 New South Wales Wine Awards, two of those respectively winning trophies for Best Young Sauvignon Blanc and Best Young Red Blend (with a cabernet merlot).

Further trophies at the 2010 New South Wales Small Winemakers Wine Show followed for Best Sauvignon Blanc; trophy for Best Pinot Gris at the 2010 Cowra Wine Show; trophy for Other White Varieties (Pinot Gris) at the 2010 Winewise Small Vignerons Awards; trophies for Best Shiraz Award and Best Red Wine Award at the Shanghai International Wine Challenge 2010; two wines ranked equal fifth with gold medals at the 2010 Great Australian Shiraz Challenge; and a gold medal for a Pinot Noir at the 2010 New Zealand International Wine Show.

A region for all seasons, it would seem.

The NZ Riesling Challenge

New Zealand has recently come up with an interesting competition for Riesling. Called the NZ Riesling Challenge, it involved 12 winemakers pre-selected to each make a riesling using grapes picked from the same vineyard at the same time in 2010. The initiative was that of Mud House Wines, which provided the four tonnes of hand-picked grapes to each winemaker. They were encouraged to use whatever method they considered most appropriate, and the winner was Matt Donaldson of the Pegasus Bay winery. He commented, ‘The fruit was in perfect condition but picked a little earlier than we do for our Pegasus Bay Riesling, so we thought we would have a little experimental fun and froze the bunches before gently pressing. This raised the degree Brix from 22 to 25. Fermentation was clean and cool and stopped according to taste to give a luscious classic style.’

The wines were judged by the participating winemakers under the direction of Chairman of Judges, Bob Campbell MW. All of the wines have now been bottled, and 2000 cases containing one bottle of each of the 12 wines made will be available for public purchase through the participating wineries, the Mud House Wine Group, and a dedicated NZ Riesling Challenge website. For more information on the background of Mud House Wine and its director, Neil Charles-Jones, contact Mark Devlin, mark@impactpr.co.nz.

For the record, second place went to Matt Dicey of Mt Difficulty Wines and third place to Mike Brown from Golden Hills Estates.