2019 Vintage Overview

It has taken 15 years and a lot of hard work to finally get to this point. Vintage 2019 is the first harvest processing our fruit in our own purpose built winery on our Coolart Road vineyard.

Following a lower than average rainfall and relatively standard temperatures over the winter, cooler temperatures in August and September led to late budburst and flowering.

Above average temperatures and low rainfall during summer meant an early veraison and harvest. Five days of above average temperatures at the beginning of harvest has compressed the vintage further, with ‘up the hill’ fruit, which has lower yields, being picked immediately after ‘down the hill’. On average, there is two weeks difference in ripening between our down the hill vineyard in Tuerong and up the hill vineyards in Main Ridge. There has been very little gap this year.

Ten Minutes by Tractor commenced picking on the 27th February at our Coolart Road vineyard and we will finish the picking up the hill vineyards by around 20th March.

The yields are normal and fruit quality is outstanding, particularly up the hill. The down the hill fruit has higher sugar levels from the warmer weather experienced during picking. Up the hill fruit has maintained very good acidity and beautiful flavours. At this very early stage we would say that the 2019 vintage has a lot of promise, better than 2016 and 2018 and quality to match or exceed 2017, but time will tell.

- Martin Spedding