Vintage choice

Do we harvest now or do we watch and wait? That's the question on the lips of many of the State's winegrowers as the industry's 200-plus vineyards move into the business end of the season. It might sound simple, but there's no one simple answer. Grape growing is a complex issue, says Frogmore Creek's Tony Scherer.

The Coal River Valley vigneron says the choices growers faced right now are the same ones they consider every vintage. Harvest early - before a vineyard's grapes are naturally sugar ripe and flavour ripe - and the best result may be a thin and flavourless wine. At worst, it may be green and undrinkable.

Hang out for fruit to be harvested at optimum ripeness and growers faced increased risks of frost or a wet and diseased vintage with every passing day. And whatever the choice, no winemaker can make a good wine out of poor grapes. 

"It's been an interesting season," says the co-owner of the State's largest organic vineyard.

"On our place, we're certainly ahead of schedule, but we're not as far ahead as some in harvesting our crop. We expected to pick around 80 tonnes this year and so far we've only picked about 15 or 20 tonnes. Our Riesling is still about three weeks away, yet others in the valley have picked theirs already.

"On the other hand, we've picked our Sauvignon Blanc, which is a late variety, so God only knows what's going on this year!"

Still, the laid-back former Californian says he has a fair idea what's driving picking issues at the moment. Mostly, it's to do with the large amount of spring rain and plant growth that vineyards experienced early on in the season. Coupled with that is the amount of fruit each vine has been carrying.

"In many cases, vineyards have got light crops in some varieties with really big vine canopies because of all the rain we had," he explains.

"Those big engines are what's driving the early ripening. That's seen guys like Steve Lubiana being practically finished already, while others have hardly even started. Fruit flavours seem to be coming on at different times this year. Some varieties appear to have had high sugars early with good flavours, while other sites or varieties have had high sugars and low flavours, or low sugars and surprisingly good flavours. It's been weird."

As boss of Cambridge's Hood Wines – one of the State's largest contract winemaking businesses – Scherer is better placed than many to observe what's been going on around the State.

His assessments suggest much of the south has been running well ahead of schedule, though there are exceptions to the rule wherever you look. Meadowbank, for example, has picked a large proportion of its Coal River Valley fruit, while vineyards like Roslyn further north in the same valley are yet to pick much at all.

Northern properties also appear to be enjoying an early harvest, but not as early as those in the south. Flavour development and harvest schedules vary from site to site and variety to variety, with only limited disease pressure to pose problems for growers.

So what will be the best crop of the year?

At Frogmore Creek, Scherer says few things will match the success of the three luxuriant cover crops he grew between vineyard rows this season to improve soil structure and nutrition. That already bodes well for 2007.

First published 4 April 2006: The Examiner