2016 in Matakana started with an unusually warm and muggy summer. High night-time temperatures and humidity increased the disease pressure in the vineyard, so through January and February the focus was on keeping the vines and grapes clean.
Conditions improved from March onwards, with drier conditions and cooler nights, although there was still a few tropical systems to watch out for.
Vintage itself for us took place in mid-April in fine weather. Ripeness and sugar levels were very good, although crop levels were down. We had no problems with botrytis or powdery mildew in spite of the conditions, although we did suffer a high level of damage from birds and wasps which needed to be sorted out.
Assessing the wine after fermentation, I am very pleased with the vintage, intensity is better than I expected and the tannins are very fine at this early stage.
