Vintage is one of my favourite times of the year on the Mornington Peninsula, as it’s a hive of activity across the vineyards with grapes being picked and wineries crushing, pressing and fermenting them into this beautiful drop we call wine.
Pinot noir and chardonnay are the most prominent grape varieties grown on the Peninsula, with pinot noir on top of the podium as the most dominant grape; this is the third largest region in Australia for pinot.
The timing of vintages, or harvest once the grapes are ripe and ready to pick, can differ across the subregions of the Peninsula. Subregions are where the vines are located within the wine-growing region of the Peninsula. For example, the subregion known as the northern part of Peninsula – Moorooduc or Tuerong – can start picking earlier than the subregion of Red Hill/Main Ridge.
Because of the Peninsula’s proximity to the coast, its southern location and being surrounded by Western Port and Port Phillip, it is classified as a ‘cool maritime climate’. This means there is little risk of frosts, and we benefit from the cooling influences generally created from prevailing wind north and east of Port Phillip or from the south and east across Western Port/Bass Strait. This maritime influence does bring with it good – but hopefully not too much – spring rain and wind with a healthy dose of sunshine hours to help with ripening the grapes.
However, despite this lovely description of the climate, every year is different, hence the resulting vintages are too. This can be different crop sizes or yields being determined early by the weather in the primary stages of the vine’s ‘vintage’ year cycle and eventual grape development. So basically if you don’t get enough sunshine or little to no rain, yield size can be affected. This means when the vines eventually flower and develop into grapes, the fruit set as it’s called is reduced, resulting in lower yields or volume of fruit.
If we look at the 2023 vintage, it was a challenge for yields because we had some decent storms during the growing season at the back end of 2022 that may have damaged the vines. This was eerily similar to 2021, so really the past three vintages have produced low yields.
As a result of these smaller vintages and the actual volume of fruit finally processed to make the wine, prices can unfortunately be higher at the cellar door, wineries and even the retail stores. This does ultimately have a flow-on effect for small-volume vintages like we have seen to date. I should mention that the timing for picking was certainly more evident over the past three vintages. Normally you would see most producers start to pick in mid to late-February, but this was pushed back in some cases by two to three weeks as a result.
So what’s in store for the 2024 vintage? Things are looking positive with more settled weather, the vines’ ‘vintage’ cycle is a lot happier and the subsequent fruit set looks a lot more abundant than in previous years. The white nets you now see mostly scattered everywhere when you drive across the Peninsula were put on quite early – I hear as early as January for some vineyards when usually it’s around February. This is because the grapes have started to change colour, or veraison as it’s known (red wine grapes change to purple), so the nets are there to protect the shiny colourful berries from being eaten by birds.
All the signs are pointing to a positive, hopefully lovely generous vintage with plentiful yields. Time will tell how it all pans out, but the conversations I’ve had with colleagues out in the vines are very encouraging.
It’s an exciting and very busy time, and if you happen to visit one of the many cellar doors on the weekend you may well see vintage action in the winery next door. And if you’re lucky you might get to sample a few grapes and the juice while tasting.
Until next time, enjoy your wine journey.
NIGEL STREET
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