Season 2002

Our website is being launched as the wines are finishing their primary fermentation.

The Pinot Gris and Chardonnay are in the barrel and the Pinot Noir has just been pressed and the wine gone to barrel.

We harvested no Shiraz. Overall the crop was more than 50% down on 2001. After a mild winter and wettish spring, budburst and flower formation were reasonable.

The weather turned cold and wet during flowering. Such weather is the worst enemy to viticulture in maritime climates such as ours, as it results in a significantly reduced fruit set. December turned out to be the coldest on record; flowering was prolonged which meant that many of the flowers did not set (coulure) and shot berries (millerandage) were also present. A pattern of warm weather interspersed with cool/wet snaps continued to veraison.

The berries that set were smaller than usual. A good spell of warm weather before vintage gave us ripe 'miniature' grapes that were very pulpy and intense in flavour. The grapes were thick skinned, with good sugar and acid levels, and plenty of tannins in the Pinot Noir.

The wines are showing excellent colour and concentrations.
It is early days but it could be a great vintage irrespective of the difficult growing conditions.