A (very) good vintage is in the making
By Joelle Thomson
What does the perfect growing season look like for wine?
Well, 2024 came close. It’s all very well growing grapes in a region that is typically hot, typically dry and has a decent dose of wind (to prevent disease), which are all the big boxes that Martinborough and the wider Wairarapa wine region routinely tick.
Or should I say, historically ticked, because there is a new normal these days, which ensures that life is anything but business as usual for most winemakers in most wine growing regions around the world. It’s called climate change, (surprise).
It is responsible for the good, the not so good and the downright horribly unpredictable, as torrential rain and a devastating cyclone showed us all over the past two years. We now live in a world in which anybody working with viticulture (grape growing), horticulture or agriculture has to learn to live with the unexpected, which is why it was so refreshingly joyful for winemakers in this region to have such an outstanding lead up to harvest 2024.
That lead up had many winemakers suggesting that 2024 may be one of the best years ever for the quality of Pinot Noir in the Wairarapa. The proof was hanging on the vines; with picture perfect looking grapes, particularly Pinot Noir, which is the most important and highest volume grape in the region with approximately 50 percent of the total vineyard area of 1090 hectares in the Wairarapa. … Continue Reading
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