With many vineyards starting to pick this week, the question on everyone’s lips is ‘How are things looking for the 2013 harvest’?
When you’re behind an office desk you can never be arrogant enough to presume, so a quick phone around to get the official word on this harvest brought up the same word by all five vineyards spoken to – “Perfect”. Farmers may have their brows knotted in angst and worry by the drought, but I’m proud to announce that, at this stage at least, the vineyards are happy. Very happy.
So why is 2013 shaping up to be such a good vintage? And is it good enough to boast smugly to your friends from further afield that Martinborough will be well and truly wearing the crown for New Zealand’s best 2013 Pinot?
Put simply, it’s been a ‘perfect’ season. It all started back in spring when we managed to dodge any significant frost damage of burnt leaves and loss of buds. We also had a really good flowering which set us up for good cropping levels.
Martinborough is known for its cool climate wines and this autumn has been the perfect example of this. We like it being hot (but not too hot), during the day, with cool nights. These diurnal fluctuations suspend the sugar development, giving our wines a lovely savoury finish. They also cause the grapes to retain a lot of tannins and result in a lovely balance of acidity and tannins.
I was a bit concerned about the rain in mid-March, but have since discovered that it has not caused any adverse visual effects, particularly in terms of disease. In fact the rain momentarily stalled the ripening process giving the grapes more time hanging on the vine, which leads to a greater development of complex flavours. And the fact that the rain washed some of the dust off has helped too!
Vines like to do it hard – but not too hard. Like everything there’s a very fine balance but this year it seems to have worked out just right. Many would argue that vineyard management is the key to maximising the effect of a season such as we’ve just had, so after extensive leaf plucking and thinning of fruit it’s wonderful that the vineyards are in a position to reap the benefits of all their hard work.
As Katherine Jacobs of Big Sky Wines explained “this is the year for winemakers to make the best wine that they can make”.
So it seems that it’s not just coincidence that all of the vineyards are using the word ‘perfect’ to describe the 2013 vintage, and as Larry McKenna from Escarpment Vineyard concluded, “this is as good as it gets… but it’s early days yet”.
The recipe for a happy winemaker: Wet Spring to moisten ground, warm dry days during flowering, hot but not over too hot over ripening season, nice cold nights during autumn with no rain during harvest = equals exactly what Martinborough has experienced this season!
