What a difference a year can make!  For the last two seasons I’ve been discussing how our weather patterns in W.A appear to be shifting to a later winter resulting in a cooler and wetter spring and the implications that this was having on the vineyard.  Well I should have known better than to make predictions about the weather as we've just experienced our hottest, driest spring, summer and autumn on record.

In the future, I’ll just stick to the notion of variable weather patterns whilst preparing for extreme weather events.  It's worth noting that while the west burned the east coast experienced torrential rainfall that wreaked havoc with their vintage.  This is an area of viticulture, or farming in general that will always confound me.  That we are beholden to the vagaries of weather and its deep influence over the outcome is frustrating but nevertheless it has such a big impact on wine quality, type and style.  Having said that each year is different, some more than others, with the benefit of experience and intimate knowledge of our vineyards I’m able to personally respond to the prevailing conditions to arrive at a desirable result (talk about famous last words, we’ll probably have a cyclone next vintage!)

The silver lining of a hot dry season is that disease pressure in the vineyard is very low requiring less chemical inputs.  The lack of rainfall also allowed me to water stress the vines at appropriate times by withholding irrigation to produce small concentrated berries. However, heat stress can have negative effects too.  Over exposed fruit burns and shrivels very easily which can reduce crop size and result in wines that display Jammy, burnt sugar characters.  During the past two seasons I was doing my best to open up the canopy to allow for airflow, spray penetration and to let sunlight in whereas this year I was doing my best to protect the fruit from the sun.  

As expected vintage commenced slightly earlier due to the heat and all the whites (rose' too) were picked within ten days which was intense.  Fortunately, I have enough tank space in the winery to accommodate this so I didn't have the added pressure of juggling vessels, wine and juice to squeeze everything in so quickly.  It's worth noting that I picked all of the whites at lower sugar levels this year which resulted in lower alcohol wines (around 1-2%).  Quite simply the fruit was physiologically ripe and the flavours were present so we harvested and the resulting wines look fantastic.  By adopting this approach we overcame the notion that hot years are good for reds but not for white varieties.

After the whites were processed there was a bit of a lull before the reds were ready. This was obviously due to the early picking but it was worth the wait.  As a result of the heat the berries and bunches were tiny, half their normal size, which scares the accountant but makes the winemaker very happy.  As stated, smaller berries results in greater concentration of flavour, aroma and colour in red wines. The winemaking is easy requiring minimal intervention to bring out the generous flavours and deep purple colour and I reckon the 2011 reds are some of the best I’ve made.

Cheers,

Liam Clarke

Heafod Glen Winemaker