by Tanya Steele
Wineries of the Healesville region have only just begun picking for vintage this year, placing extra pressure on the vineyards.
Cool weather conditions over summer have pushed back picking time to between two to four weeks in many parts of the Yarra Valley, with wineries working long hours trying to pick crops before the weather turns.
Tony Winspear from Balgownie Estate said it has been a busy time trying to get the summer harvest picked in time.
“We are flat out at the moment, it’s a busy time,” he said.
Balgownie Estate began vintage around four weeks later than usual, with the Autumn weather changes an important factor.
“You have to start hedging your bets around late March and into April, with wet weather impacting the picking,” he said.
With cooler days and less sunshine hours, many wineries in the Yarra Valley have felt the impacts from the weather.
“We’ve managed to pick our pinot and it is looking fantastic, although the crops were down a little bit, but the quality is looking really, really nice,” he said.
Growers must wait to pick at the right time, while at the same time risking potential interference from rainfall, with grapes losing brightness if they are left on the vine too long.
“You don’t pick until you drop, because if the flavour isn’t there then you aren’t potentially going to make the sort of wine you need to make,” Tony said.
The wine flavours are area dependent and rely on a number of factors, the terrain, the soil, the weather and how the vines in the winery itself have matured over time.
“You’re always looking for flavour, balance, good acid and ripe phenolics or tannins in the skin,” Tony said.
Some wineries in cooler areas have only just begun picking in the last week, Michelle Gunther of Morgan’s Winery and Distillery in Seville has also noticed the delays.
“Usually Healesville picks two weeks before us but we haven’t started yet and the Upper Yarra is in a cooler climate,” she said.
The winery anticipates it will begin picking pinot and chardonnay varieties in the next few weeks.
“We’ve had a lot of rain and it’s been a bit too wet, we’d usually be done by now,” she said.
“We haven’t really had a summer this year and without the sun the grapes take that bit longer to grow.”
The wineries must pick and press, then wait for the harvest to settle before beginning their fermentation processes.
Balgownie Estate managed to finally begin its chardonnay harvest on the weekend of 12 March and Tony has described it as a “small but quality” crop.
The run of cool weather has been a fortunate turn and the winery was lucky to get grapes off the vine before they got too ripe.
“We needed to get the grapes off before the hot weather, over ripening can cause the grapes to lose some really essential freshness,” he said.
Dubbed by Tony as the “quadrella” harvest, the winery had planned to harvest three times previously only to be met with delays due to the weather and equipment repairs.
Machine harvesters are used on the vineyard during the nighttime but must be booked in advance and rely on good weather conditions.
Tony anticipates wineries in the region will have to continue to be adaptive to work with the more difficult weather conditions in the future.
“We’ve been getting a lot of difficult wet weather and while the Yarra Valley has always been a cooler climate area, you have to be prepared to be nimble on your feet.”
