Vintage report 2019
The 2019 season started well with no significant frost issues and reasonable spring rains to develop healthy canopies. Some cool weather during flowering affected the bunch size of some varieties – particularly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – and as a result, crops were naturally slightly down. January and February were then extremely dry with virtually no rainfall for two months and warmer than average temperatures. We began to anticipate an early harvest and indeed our first grapes were picked on the 15th February – our earliest start ever. There was a brief pause before the next grapes were ready and in the first week in March, we finished off the sparkling wines and then moved immediately to picking Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir this year is spectacular, with the grapes in excellent condition and the young wines showing great colour, fruit concentration and structure. This vintage will certainly be a contender for ‘best yet’ for this variety.
The remainder of the harvest period was very kind and we were able to be very detailed with our picking decisions, picking sections of vineyard rather than the whole block. This allowed us to fine-tune our harvest program to get the most out of the vineyards. The Sauvignon Blanc harvest began on the 11th of March and finished on the 30th of March. This was an unrushed harvest compared to the previous two years and reflected our desire to pick smaller parcels of fruit. We have captured a great range of flavours and aromas. Even at this early stage we can see ripe tropical, citrus, passionfruit and some of that distinctive sweat or passionfruit skin character that is a classic ‘Marlborough’ character. We are certainly looking forward to blending this year.
Vintage 2019 will be remembered for low to moderate crops, pristine fruit and a busy but very satisfying harvest period. We expect to make great wines across all the varieties this year and in fact there is no excuse to not make great wine from 2019! We look forward to sharing these wines with you over the next few years.
Clive Jones
April 2019
