Bits and Pieces of 2009 Vintage Information (25 February)

 

This is an amalgam of feedback and comments from a number of producers.  

 

The Latest Poop From The Pie King's Vineyard in Blewitt Springs - early February

 

His Pieship wrote, "The grapes throughout the area are pretty much stuffed - some of the redgrapes have already been harvested! No prizes for guessing the quality of the wines they will produce. I couldn't imagine any great wines being salvaged from this areas grapes. My vineyard is a patchwork - some serious leaf burn (like someone has taken a cosmic blowtorch to them), some vines are still sound, others have had significant leaf senescence, some are not through veraison and others have turned red and already started to shrivel - but no flavour in the grapes at all. Hope this paints the picture!"

 

TORB's Comment

Its not the same all over the McLaren Vale Region. According to one grower, this vintage is the story of two or maybe three vintages in one. Surprisingly to all involved, very little picking has been going on the past weeks because beaumes are still low in the good blocks. Strange year with some bad news but maybe a fair bit of very good news too. Cabernet is brilliant and much of the Chardonnay crop is the best in years. (But who gives a stuff about Shar-don-ay anyway!) 

I have it on good authority that other regions copped it at least as bad as parts of McLaren Vale, but they are keeping their traps shut. Some local associations send emails to members asking them not to talk to the media.

 

From: David Cross - Winter Creek Barossa - Updated 3 March 2009
David rang me to let me know the latest from his vineyard at Williamstown (southern Barossa.)  Their grapes have now been picked, however there will be no Winter Creek 2009 reds. The grapes have been sold to another producer. According to David, "There were two reasons for this decision, which was made a week before harvest. Firstly, the heat had smashed the grapes and the quality was not good enough for us to put our name on the bottle. By that that I mean that the fruit was not showing the flavour profile we like in our wine. Secondly, I think 2009 will be a vintage with a 'tainted' reputation and selling anything from this vintage (from Vic and SA) will be difficult.

 

Some of the growers I speak to tell me that quantity is down by as much as 60% and whilst our grapes were not up to our quality, the winery we sold them to said they were better than anything they had grown. There will also be a number of growers that will just 'drop the fruit' and wont bother to harvest it. That will hurt individual producers, but it will help the overall vintage quality and assist in the reduction of the wine surplus.    

 

If you think about it, about one in five years in Bordeaux is just about a right off, so we are lucky that it only happens here occasionally.

 

Its not all doom and gloom. Some of the growers in the area are very happy with their fruit and expect to make good wine, so I guess it will be a patchy vintage.

 

Our white grapes which are grown in the Adelaide Hills faired much better as the heat did not hit as badly, so well be producing wine from these grapes."       
 

 

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TORB Copyright © Ric Einstein 2009