Vintage 2016 was beautiful, with very warm, dry consistent days during harvest.
We started picking on the 21st March with our first Pinot Noir harvest, which was a week earlier than usual for us. With the weather on our side, of glorious warm blue sky days, the fruit arrived at the winery in very beautiful, healthy and in pristine condition. We only experienced 2 half days of rain during harvest, which is always a relief in the eyes of a winemaker. Harvesting was very gradual and steady as the weather was on our side, and this is the way we like to do it. All of the fruit comes into the winery in small manageable parcels to suit the winery, so we have the time to pay attention to the winemaking process. We had happy pickers, but most importantly we had a happy winemaker.
Harvesting was completed by the 21st of April with the Syrah coming in last. All the wines were tucked up and in barrel by the middle of May.
The first impression of the vintage in regards to the Pinot Noir ferments is that the wines were expressing primary fruit characters, like red cherries and black doris plums. The 2016 vintage will certainly be a vintage worth waiting for and we are looking forward to when the whites will be released at the end of the year, with the Pinot Noir’s and the other red varieties at 2 years away but will certainly hold great promise.