Vintage 2024 is just around the Corner

Vintage 2024 Expectations

Vintage 2024 to date

It is easy to get caught up in the trade winds that we see around us. Market conditions are tough, vines were left unpruned, grapes will be left on the vine, prices will be depressed further, but the vines and the season marches on. And we are excited for the months ahead.

Weather conditions to date have been kind. Reasonable rainfall (350mm recorded for calendar year 2023) does not sound much but the timing has been excellent. We received the right rainfall at the right time. If I could have one more wish, I would ask for an inch in early February, but I suspect that will be one wish too many.

Temperatures have been average or close to average, a few warm days in January but nothing unusual. Timing, again, was excellent.

Vintage 2024 schedule - now to the crystal ball!

At this stage we are expecting a compressed vintage. Northern fruit could well ripen with our Southern fruit, with the West and East following a week or two later. What does this mean for quality? Absolutely nothing!

I suspect we will pick 2-3 weeks earlier than 2023 (the latest vintage for decades) and I’m expecting to be more in line with 2021. We anticipate picking the Primrose Chardonnay in a couple of weeks, followed by the Semillon and the Fromm old vine Grenache and Mataro for the Rose. We might see some southern reds in February, but expect early March, along with lots of other fruit. I suspect March will be close to our busiest month since 2021, when timing and conditions were similar.

YIELD

Not surprisingly, at this stage yields look about 30-40% down on the very big 2023 vintage. This brings them more inline with long term averages.

Quality

Too early to predict, but baring any hail, severe storms or smoke, we are very happy with where the vines are compared to previous vintages. Time will tell.

WHAT are we doing?

In the winery

The ramp up to vintage always follows the same routine in the winery - wash down, cleanup, test equipment, repair any damage, wax the cages, and wait. This normally takes 3 weeks, or 2 weeks if we are in a hurry. Our vintage hand arrives on the 12th of February. John will be very busy cleaning, picking a few white grapes and visiting vineyards.

In the Vineyards

The vineyards are all about monitoring. I have visited all our vineyards in the past week to get an early look. Andrew and I will visit them again this coming week. Testing has begun in the Chardonnay and we will get a snapshot of the Rose base too. Reds are still yet to full colour so too early there.

Bottling

We chose to leave bottling the 2023 Grenache and Mataro based wines a little later than typical this year. They will now be bottled in February 2024. This could create some challenges if vintage progresses earlier than expected. The wines are ready to go, and they look wonderful. 2023s are going to be very good.