2023

The 2022/2023 growing season began with a winter rainfall almost smack-bang on the long-term average, something that occurs with far less frequency than we would like these days. This made for a rather wet pruning season, but given the trade-off we were more than happy to push through the odd damp-booted day. The flip side of this was a slightly warmer winter, with both mean minimum and mean maximum temperatures almost 0.5-1oC above the long-term average.

Spring also recorded rainfalls close to the long-term average, although interestingly mean temperatures were below the long-term average, making for a slightly cooler ease into the vineyard growth. This combination meant a necessity to be vigilant for disease pressure (particularly in November, where we got reasonable rainfall), but also an appreciably more gradual growing season than in some recent years.

By the beginning of December we reached an ideal period of dry weather (the third driest Summer on record) and slightly more gradual heating than in some recent years. Whilst the mean temperatures were slightly above the long-term average, there were no recorded days with maximums above 40oC, which is an oddity in a region as warm as the Swan Valley. This again contributed to an elongation of the growing season over the short and sharp trend from previous years.

By early January, typically when we would be expecting to kick harvest into gear, sampling suggested we were perhaps 1-2 weeks behind in maturation than the previous couple of years. This ripening timetable put us more in line with what we could have expected about a decade previously, once again a good indication that there will always be outliers when it comes to the overall trend of heating and drying that is readily apparent in our region. The issue, however, is that these are fewer and farther between.

The accumulation of all of these factors (close to average rainfall in winter and spring, a cooler spring, a slightly more mild summer) meant that we began harvest on January 22nd with our first pick of Semillon. This was a whole 2 weeks behind our harvest date in 2020, and the latest one thus far. This ideal ripening period meant fruit was coming off the vine with fantastic phenological ripeness, mature flavour, and perfectly balanced acidity. The Chenin was subsequently picked in late January, all of the Grenache in early-to-mid February, and the contract Shiraz and Cabernet in early-to-mid February as well. Fruit from the southern climes (Frankland Riesling and Albany Sauvignon and Merlot) also managed to hang out until mid-March, and came in with fantastic flavour, low baumes, and ripping acidity.

All in all, then, a vintage that presented little challenge in terms of growing, but almost optimal conditions for ripening. The only wish would be for this sort of season to be the norm, not the outlier, going forward.