A vine harvest

Winegrowers overcome a challenging season

Acool, wet spring followed by neardrought conditions in the summer meant that winegrowers were on tenterhooks for much of the season, fretting over the health of their vines and wondering what this year’s vintage might look like come harvest time. Much of those fears have been allayed by warm and sunny weather as summer turned to autumn, and across the County vintners have expressed optimism at the grape harvest now in full swing. They have been keeping a keen eye on the weather, waiting for the right moment when the alchemy of sun and terroir bring the grapes to their peak flavour and expression of minerality. “The last couple of weeks will have likely made the vintage,” said Glenn Symons, owner and winemaker at Lighthall Vineyards. “I’ve got the most ripe chardonnay I’ve ever had in the press right now. Our yields are relatively good and I’ve got some amazing quality pinot noir already off and fermenting. It’s looking brilliant.”

(L-R): Braydon Scully and Cory Broomfield get the last of the pinot noir into a special reserve barrel. The cask in the background holds five tonnes of fermenting pinot noir.

Over at Sugabush Vineyards, owners Rob and Sally Peck tell a similar story. About one-quarter of their vines are covered in geotextile fabric for winter protection, while the remainder of the vines are buried. The latter vines suffered some winter damage when the soil covering was partially eroded, and they exhibited some drought stress during the dry summer, requiring some of the fruit to be pruned off to maintain the health of the plant. “The fall has been quite lovely, and has made up for the challenges in the summertime,” said Sally. “We’ve harvested chardonnay and pinot, with riesling and cabernet franc to come. There’s good sugar content, and above average yields. Overall, I’m happy. It can always be better in grape growing, but then it can always be worse as well.” Some of grapes on their chardonnay vines that had spent the winter under geotextile had a brix that Sally described as “stellar”, and they are planning to do a special barrel select reserve with those grapes.

Winemaker Keith Tyers at Closson Chase Vineyards has 20 tonnes of this year’s pinot noir grapes naturally fermenting in four enormous casks. “We’ve taken off the last of the pinot noir, a little bit later than we have in the past three years, because of the few cool weeks before we had the last week of sunshine. But it’s good. The fruit is fruit is phenomenal. The skins are nice and thick, with lots of flavour,” he said. “It looks like it’s going to be a really good vintage, lots of florals and a spicy tone to the pinot for sure.” He has 15 acres of chardonnay remaining to be harvested in the coming weeks. “This is a cooler vintage, similar to ’14 and ’09, but with great extraction and great depth of character. It’s a very typical County vintage in terms of fruit-acid combination and there’s a nice minerality in there.”

The release dates for wines made from this year’s grapes differ between the wineries. Sugarbush is looking at a spring 2020 date, and in addition to their very popular Maple Red, they will be offering a maple syrup flavoured white wine. More immediately, they have a just-released 2018 pinot noir. “That was an excellent growing season, and that wine spent most of the year in French oak,” said Sally. Lighthall Vineyard will be offering a Christmas release for its 2016 vintage Progression and Culmination, a traditional- method sparkling wine. The Culmination made from this year’s grapes will be bottled in late spring 2020, and is scheduled for release in 2022. Winemaker Tyers typically ages his chardonnay in oak for 16 months, and ages the pinot for around 18 months. He will be releasing a best barrel selection in the summer of 2020 is expecting to have a traditional method sparkling wine available in 2023.