2022

 

New and joyous experiences abounded for your Local Weirdos during the 2021/22 growing season: we first saw the addition of one new tiny weirdo (Beautiful Freyja), followed by the swift arrival of another (Handsome Valentine), the first full crop off Gino’s vineyard, and the realisation of a couple of cheeky little joint projects that had been percolating behind the scenes.


More familiar were the trying climatic conditions experienced, after much promise early in the season. Substantial rain through Makuru, the highest winter rainfall total in a number of years, served to partially replenish the dwindling ground water supplies of our parched region. This flowed into a rather wet Djilba and beginning of Kambarang, bringing heightened disease pressure, especially downy mildew. We were thankfully able to suppress any major issues through well-timed alternating sprays of EcoCarb Plus and EcoCopper; the threat from powdery mildew was managed with EcoSulphur and the aforementioned EcoCarb Plus. The challenging zenith, though, was the severity of Birak season, a scorching couple of months of oppressive and extended heat events that had an unexpected and unpredictable effect on the vines’ ability to ripen fruit in the typical manner. Flavours and phenolics developed unevenly, acid dropped out as sugar development stalled (or, indeed, did not), vines showed real and troubling signs of heat stress. All in all, then, an exceedingly difficult vintage in which to discern the correct time to pick, the decision determining not only the potential character of the subsequent wine, but also the ongoing health and viability of some of our precious ageing vines. 

Nevertheless, as ever, despite feeling as though I was fumbling through the process of scheduling picks, and clumsily grasping for (though never quite reaching) the fabled perfect picking window, I sit here now quietly astonished at the quality of what we managed to produce. The delirium of those early months of parenthood, coinciding precisely with harvest, seemed to cloud my judgement and the possibility of that conclusion. I found it hard to agree with the rest of the Weirdos’ proclamations about the overall distinction of the 2022 cuvees, particularly so given I was still somewhat lost in the mire of such a perplexing growing season. Nearly 10 months on from that first pick (and still, who knows if it was the right choice?), the wines safely tucked in bottle since the end of August, I can see what they were talking about.

In the end, then, I’m once more indescribably proud of what we’ve created, and what Local Weirdos is becoming. Every year it’s a long and winding path to acceptance of the fruits of our labour, but get there we always do. The more they change, the more things stay exactly the same.

Stay Weird,
Sam Jorgensen

On behalf of all of the other Local Weirdos - Charles, Matt, Larold and Dave.