Vintage Report 2010

 

"The Vintage of the Decade.....So far "

 

This may well turn out to be the Vintage of the Decade as 2010 provided,from a growing perspective,exquisite conditions for finishing grapes to their optimum.

 

There cannot be too many excuses in Marlborough for substandard wines so long as they have been treated as kindly in the Winery as Mother Nature has nurtured them on the vines.

We commenced the growing season with some trepidation as cool conditions up until late December could have spelled trouble.

 

However once again we were blessed with benign conditions from February and along with lower yields everything was very orderly.

 

We commenced our picking with T.H.E Pinot Noir & Pinot Gris on the 30th March and then onto the first parcel of T.H.E Sauvignon Blanc on the 31st March.We finished up the vintage, not surprisingly, with our T.H.E Viognier on the 20th April.The Viognier grapes once again got fully ripe with a brix of 26.5 attained with the fruit flavours excellent. We will bank this in the bottle as who knows when we will get two Marlborough vintages 2009 & 2010 that can fully express this variety in our region.Hmmm...maybe should try Syrah..??

 

Steve Hammond