Edition 1: Wednesday 15th January 2025
This is one of the earliest vintages in my memory with us starting Monday, 6 January, two days earlier than last year, and the earliest since 1981. With autumn practically starting at the end of the first week of August this was always going to be an early vintage. We had decent winter rain, but it has been dry since the end of winter with some real heat in the latter half of December, with a couple of 40 degree days. The other weather feature has been very little wind so if there is any dampness in the vineyard it is staying there to later in the day, but no real disease problems as yet. Extreme heat of the new year weekend has pushed the sugars up, reduced the amount of juice and pHs are moving to where they should be, but the acids are still a bit too high.
We started picking on Monday with a hand crew on Chardonnay from Casuarina for Blanc de Blancs sparkling. The fruit was almost exactly what we tested and what we wanted. We only picked nine tonnes so it was a good first day to break in a new picking crew. Monday night we picked half of the Chardonnay required for Chardonnay Pinot Noir Brut, again from Casuarina, and topped it up the next morning with Pinot Noir from HVD. Immediately the tonnage picked was showing a considerable rise from last year with credit going to our new Vineyard Manager, Brent Hutton. Our initial target for Casuarina Chardonnay was about seventy tonnes and it looks like we will get up to a hundred tonnes. We brought back the name Casuarina, from what we used to call Penfold Vale, in memory of Peter Meier, a great old friend who built the property and planted the vineyard. Many memories of long nights of flambés and great reds.
Wednesday morning, we handpicked the top Chardonnay from NVC and DeBeyers which are normally first, and fortunately just as we had finished the rain chased the pickers out of the vineyard. Another day of clean fruit, good acid and flavour and no real problems.
On Thursday, we woke up to a clear, fine and cool morning. Everything the night before had gone to plan with a small tank of Semillon from HVD for topping up and Ian Tinkler’s Chardonnay. The Chardonnay is a little on the lighter side but it is an insurance pick for topping up material if it gets seriously hot later in vintage. We then picked the Stevens Semillon, with a big team, and for the first time ever we picked all the Stevens Semillon in one day, and that is a lot of ground to cover. However, after two years of hail the crop was significantly down but the small amount we made is real Stevens; fresh, clean and lively. There will not be as much Stevens Semillon, but it looks like it will be pretty dam good.
By the end of the weekend all of the small blocks of Hunter Valley Verdelho were finished. Crop levels, at the moment, are running at 10% to 15% over target and Chardonnay, in some places, is up by at least a third to fifty percent.
On Monday, 13 January we picked Pokolbin Hills Semillon with another big team and for the first time, in a long time, we were able to pick all of the big block in one day. The juice out of the press was just fantastic, some of the best Semillon juice I have ever seen. We also had the first load of Verdelho from Denman, which like everything else is in wonderful condition and we have another three truckloads of that to come. That will now be the end of Verdelho for the vintage. Lots of sampling as well on Monday, but nothing really quite ready. We picked the balance of Pokolbin Hills Semillon Monday night with the volume being double budget.
There was a great deal of conjecture as to when to start picking again. The remaining whites, and Pinot Noir, are still a day or so away from picking, but with a hot day forecast for today we have decided it is time to make a start picking our own whites.
On Wednesday, we picked five tonnes of Chardonnay from the Short Flat destined for Vat 47. This is high quality and good crop level.
As a summary to date, we are happy with vintage. The fruit is all clean, there is no real disease anywhere, good acids, not so high alcohols but plenty of flavour so if everything holds together we are going to have a pretty good vintage; both in terms of quality and quantity. Our only problem now is our chief mechanic has Covid and his offsider is also sick.
We have got a busy week ahead of us and then really we will have broken the back of vintage. It is not often that we do that in January and I am not sure what to do with a February.
Edition 2: Monday 20th January 2025
On Friday and Saturday we had two big days crushing around 200 tonnes of Semillon with some rain and wind thrown in just to make life interesting. The temperature was moderate with the usual light showers on each afternoon. This was nothing of the ilk of the rain, and wind, on Wednesday night. The ferocity of the wind, and the length of time the lightning and the wind persisted, was up to four hours, which is way more than normal.
It caused very little damage in the vineyard, but the bush took the hit. Two big trees as you drive up to the winery; one beside Chris’s house and one close to the workshop were blown out of the ground. The local Council is coming around to turn the trees into woodchip and we persuaded them to leave it with us to use as mulch with our organic fertiliser.
We had another shower of about 5mm on Friday night, which finally filled up the ground with water. Saturday evening, the wind came back but the synoptic maps were showing that from Sunday on we were looking at about ten days of fine weather with only one hot day. So hopefully this week we get a good dry spell.
Sunday morning; bright and fresh at dawn and a bit of high cloud, and southerly wind, was blowing strongly by 9.00am. We took the last 40 tonnes of Semillon from the Upper Hunter and like everything Semillon, so far, it is about 11% alcohol, has nice flavour and the crop is up by 30% to 40%. With the weather change that came on Sunday, we are about to start slowing down picking with only three to four nights with a machine and about five days with the hand pickers to finish all the white from Pokolbin. Then there will be about 100 tonnes to go, in total, from Broke and the Upper Hunter. Picking will slow down once we hit the top Chardonnay as we can only get so much a day through the basket press. Semillon is way ahead of target in the crop, but Chardonnay looks like it will be spot on from what we expected.
The synoptic map, and the longer term forecast, is showing us a relatively mild temperature run with only one day in the mid 30s. Basically, no rain so we should have a free run at finishing the whites and the Pinot Noir. As of Tuesday morning, the only white we will have to pick is our own Chardonnay from HVD, Casuarina, all of Belford and the Short Flat in front of the winery. There is about 60 tonnes of Chardonnay to come in from Broke but it is running at least two weeks later than we are in Pokolbin.
Therefore, logistically life got easy as of today and the quality has remained consistently high for all white varieties since the day we started.
Edition 3: Tuesday 28th January 2025
Following on from my update last Monday, in the evening we cleaned up the last of HVD Semillon and the three to four tonnes of Pinot Noir for Special Release. This is the bit that was not required for the Chardonnay Pinot Noir Brut.
The handpickers then went to HVD and picked all the 1908s and the 1984 block, with fifteen tonnes in total which is about three tonnes more than normal. We then went to do the pickup run of three or four little blocks of Semillon, which are a dam nuisance and always get left to the end. All of the fruit is still in perfect condition, and the picking team is working well as is the crushing, and receiving area, of the winery.
Getting clean fruit all the time is almost boring, but we will be happy when we see the final wines in tank. The cost of handpicking is down by about $300 to $400 per tonne due to a good picking team and the tonnage. HVD Semillon, across the board, is at about five tonnes per acre where normally it is about three and a half.
On Wednesday, 22 January, we came back to the Short Flat and picked out, basically, everything on the eastern side of the road through the middle of the vineyard, which is about 60% of the Chardonnay on the Flat. I had a look at the 4 Acres and 8 Acres on Wednesday evening, and I think we will get a surprise at how good the crop is there. It has already been thinned out but the difference, the same as Semillon, is that the bunches are up to 50% longer than normal and have got quite big wings on them so we should have a fair bit of top Shiraz out of this year.
I went to the Upper Hunter to look at a block of Chardonnay we are buying. The word about was that ‘hail had taken half of it’, but they probably lost 15%, maybe 20%, and 80% of the bunches are unmarked so we will pick it on Monday night. Came home through Broke, which is always at least two weeks behind here. The Fiano is still at least ten days to two weeks away, and there is a bit of Chardonnay there we will pick at the end of next week.
The handpickers came back to the Short Flat on Thursday and picked what was left on the western side of the vineyard, and in the evening we finished picking the remaining Chardonnay at Casuarina with more than double last year’s crop.
Friday, we picked Belford Semillon all day while the second crew stayed here and picked out the remaining ten tonnes of Chardonnay from the old vines in the Apple Tree block. One team stayed on the Short Flat and picked the House block and Matthew’s Shiraz, while the other team went to Weinkeller and picked the first fermenter of Shiraz from there. The Chardonnay is in great condition, and it is nice to have some that is 13.5% alcohol plus, which will fit perfectly with some of the 12.5% alcohol we picked a little earlier on.
The reds, which we tested on Saturday, have all got very good colour and good chemistry. Despite the heat they are not really high in alcohol 13% to 13.5% which really, for Hunter red, is where you want to be to maintain the vibrancy and freshness.
Saturday was the last of our own whites to be picked. We have about forty tonnes to come from Broke and about twenty from the Upper Hunter and that is the end of the white vintage for 2025. The 26 January is, I think, the earliest finish of white I can remember. The white harvest has been easy and so far everything is going to plan. The quality we had at the start of vintage is still there.
Edition 4: Wednesday 5th February 2025
This week coming we have basically finished all the white, which has given us both quality and quantity. In some cases, vineyards doubled the tonnage and up a grade in quality. We are going to have some great Semillon and Chardonnay to sell particularly at the Hunter Valley level, and they will be a level above their price range.
We started into the reds, a little bit last week, then moved into Stevens, which was hit very hard by hail and there is only a tiny crop. We came back around the winery to pick the middle of the Black Ridge, front of the Baulkham and the Short Flat around the Sign Post front gate. Wednesday night we got a little over an inch of rain and a big storm with plenty of lightning. It has knocked the sugars back more than we have seen.
So far this week, we have picked bits and pieces of Shiraz as we were hoping to get it riper again. With rainfall predicted for Saturday and Sunday, I am not sure that the grapes will come back to the sugar levels we would like, and with the forecast for reasonable rain on Saturday and Sunday night the plan is to get as much off as we can by Saturday afternoon.
We have still got Johnno’s, 4 Acres, 8 Acres and Old Patch on the vine and they will be a priority to pick before the weekend. The fruit is still all in good condition and there is still plenty of colour. We would like a little less juice and a bit more sugar.
We still haven’t picked the Fiano at Broke but it is getting very close. It is funny to think that our last variety picked could be a white one.
Edition 5: Monday 10th February 2025
We had a brief storm on the evening of Wednesday, 5 February but only about 4mm, followed by a breeze which had fruit dry before sun-up. We did some contract crushing the following day of Semillon & Chardonnay for a local producer that should pay the pickers wages for this week. As vintage is coming to an end, we are losing pickers on a daily basis. They have had nearly a month of five to six days of work, and I think the surf up the Coast is looking exciting.
We are now tasting Shiraz daily looking for the next block to pick. The sugars are jumping about, and we are gradually picking them as they get to 13 beaume. The colours and flavours are still fine, but the rain last week is going to mean the latter reds will be lower in alcohol, whilst the early ones are 13% thereabouts. The red season reminds me of 1967 that made wines that were elegant, lived for a long time and had plenty of flavour.
We continued cleaning up around the winery on Thursday with the aim to get to Old Hillside Friday, which was the only major red block left to pick. All the fruit is still in remarkable condition and is holding its colour and acid. Seems like only the sugar has been affected. We may have been lucky with this year’s weather as these reds will be finer, and more elegant, with lower alcohols and will be very easy to drink young or with some bottle age.
On Saturday, we cleaned up the last few little blocks of Shiraz, by hand, and then some on Saturday night with the machine. I was concerned that Friday night/Saturday had the potential to be wet, and delay or ruin, the last eight to ten tonnes of Shiraz. There were plenty of storms around us, but good luck meant that we got all the fruit off dry.
So vintage for us, in the Hunter Valley, is now over and I keep thinking how relatively easy it has been. There were some hectic days in the first week or two where we had to handle large volumes of fruit. The hardest bit, perhaps, was having to wait early in vintage for the whites, for about two days, to get them ripe and the same happened at the start of the red.
The thunderstorm a couple of Fridays ago, that gave us about an inch of rain, did not do us any favours. For the second half of vintage, the reds are a little lower in alcohol than we would really like and have carried through with great flavour. Perhaps nature is doing us a favour as sales of Shiraz are falling, and I believe that is as a result of too much alcohol, too much tannin and not enough sweet fruit. So nature looks after the Hunter again.
We now wait for Heathcote to come through. Mark and Louise are going there on Thursday, and I would not be surprised if we don’t start picking towards the end of the following week.
Everyone in the sales force should be happy this year as you are going to have a wonderful lot of whites to present and plenty of story to talk about with the reds.