2017 Harvest Update

It’s been an unusual ‘hurry up & wait’ start to harvest 2017. Initially it looked as if it would be almost as early as 2016, the earliest harvest on record, and then some rain came… 68mm in 3 hours on Friday morning 27 January. Very unusual, but welcome in what has been an extremely dry year.

This delayed harvest by at least a week and will do wonders for our later ripening reds, Syrah & Cabernet Sauvignon. Although it has been hot and dry the evenings have been particularly cool, which shows in the excellent pH and acidity levels we’re getting.

So far we have most of our Chenin Blanc bubbling away in barrels and 3 tons on our drying racks for our Straw Wine. We’ve also harvested half of our Merlot. It looks like a bit of a wait before we get going with our Syrah, but we can see a storm brewing as the Cabernet is at a similar stage. Usually we pick most of our Syrah before the Cabernet, but it looks like it’s all going to be ready at about the same time. Follow me on Instagram to keep up with the day to day goings on.