2023 Sauvignon Blanc

Our seasons are significantly influenced by La Nina/El Nino and the IOD (Indian Ocean Dipole). These are indexes driven by where the warm and cool waters of both Pacific and Indian Oceans lie. In 2022/23 the result was a cool winter and later bud burst than average followed by a cooler and wetter Spring and Summer driven largely by the warm waters North off Australia in the Western Pacific. Heat Degree Days (HDD) for the season was 1244 against an average of 1275 and we picked our Sauvignon on 10th April which is 17 days later than our average harvest date of 24th March. The late bud burst from the cool wet winter and slow start to the growing season with a very cold October had a major influence on the harvest date. Growing season rainfall was 353 mm. This is 80mm more than our long term average of 275 mm influence by a very wet November 22 in which we had 149mm of rain. Crop levels were low at 1.4kg per vine. Part of this is possibly an ongoing effect of the fires and the fact that so much of our vineyard needed to be retrained. However even non fire affected vines yielded only 1.8kg per vine. Normally we harvest about 2.5kg per vine. Mercifully we were free of fungal diseases and lovely ripe, high acid fruit was harvested in fine weather beginning 10th April. Our old largely dry grown vines do show the benefit, I believe, from deep roots sustaining them rather than more shallow ones subject to downpours and dry spells. The low crops are a blessing in one way in that they ripen fully and in late seasons that is most important as we head into late April with cold, wet weather likely..