Our vintage wrap up

The 2019 vintage on the Mornington Peninsula was warm and dry.  It was a year which reinforced the importance of walking the vine rows, drawing on experience and intuition to mitigate the extremes of mother nature.  Our mature vines drew on their deep root systems to stay productive and we left the canopy un-trellised in parts, offering shade to our precious fruit.  We are happy (and a little relived) to say that the vintage is looking very promising at this early stage!

Bucking the trend of a hot year, our fruit came in with lovely natural acidity and a good balance of sugar and flavour ripeness.  This was particularly true of the whites, which possess great ripeness paired with persistent acid through the palate.  The reds are juicy, spicy and lively with some blocks showing wonderfully fine, lingering tannins. 

As the rain falls and the cold sets in, the memory of vintage seems more distant than usual.  It’s reassuring to know the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir batches are now tucked away for the winter.  The next phase will be preparing the Rosato and Saludos for bottling in late July.  Until then there is still plenty to do in the winery, even if the urgency has eased a little.