Vintage report by James Hook
The reported harvest from McLaren Vale was 28,434 tonnes in 2015, 14% below the 2014 harvest. Over the past five years, the average crush was 34,806 tonnes implying that 2015 yields were down on average. This year’s vintage was the smallest in the past five years.
In general the 2014/2015 season was notable for month long periods where no rain fell. The McLaren Vale Wine Region experienced an average winter rainfall, although it fell in a strange pattern. June and July were wetter than average, but no significant rain fell during August. Temperatures in late August were notably cold overnight, which delayed budburst (EL-4) in general.
It continued to be very dry across our district through September, October and November with the lowest spring rainfall in the last 20 years. This led to very low fungal disease pressure, but also reduced the natural vigour of the grapevines and canopies grew to a smaller size than typical.
Flowering began early. The weather was warm and the winds were mild. Berry set was not affected by the weather but it was reduced by the widespread presence of Eutypa lata, which has become the most economically damaging disease in the region.
December passed with rainfall continuing to be low. Several locations recorded their lowest total December rainfall for at least 20 years. Despite hot days through the first week of January, cooler than normal conditions from the second week onwards resulted in the coolest January days experienced across the state since 1992. Nights were generally near average.
February began with mild weather but hot weather coincided with the start of harvest, and temperatures throughout much of February were above average. In particular daytime temperatures were 2 to 3 °C warmer than average. Harvesting for the 2015 vintage was completed earlier than expected. Picking was extremely compressed and took just over seven weeks to complete.
Yields for 2015 were generally average at best with most vineyards below average. Lower yields and warm weather did cause a spike in sugar levels in berries. The notion of hanging fruit out in the vineyard to develop flavour and seed ripeness was replaced by the urgent need to pick fruit before sugar levels got too high and berry skins began to break down.
Reports so far are indicating strong regional characters reds with early harvested Shiraz again standing out, joined by the varieties that traditionally fare well in dry seasons, Mouvedre and Grenache, along with those recently planted for drought tolerance, Fiano, Montepulciano and Tempranillo.