by Dan Berrigan

It started on track with budburst and early spring growth, but then things certainly warmed up down here in Mount Benson!

We experienced above average max and min temperatures for almost every month from October thru to April and this was combined with little wind (rare for us), and very low rainfall. What this meant was that we were able to be more hands-off in the vineyard and just let nature do its thing. Keeping the water up to the vines was a priority this year, however our early spring mulching helped in the department.

As the weather was so kind to us, we could let the fruit hang out in the sun and allow some natural concentration to take place on the reds. With the whites, however, we needed to be mindful that the warmer conditions may reduce those beautiful aromatic flavours and natural acids that we get down here, so we chose to pick slightly earlier to capture those nuances before they were broken down by the warm, sunny days.

This was the 3rd year that we were also running our own vineyard and I couldn't be happier with its progress. We definitely reaped the rewards of a lot of hard work and field trials have resulted in some exciting new ideas that will be put into action for seasons to follow.

Autumn was beautiful, sunny and dry, so we were able to leave the reds on the vine for a little longer than average to help naturally concentrate the flavours in the fruit and resulting wine.

In conclusion, things look really nice with wines showing plenty of flavour and body, with greater depth of colour in the reds. I would say however, that the intensity is slightly lower than 2018, but vibrance of the aromas is up.

Quality is at a premium, the colour is deep, the flavours varietal and oh so typical of our beautiful, cool climate regions. Couldn't ask for more really.

Final alcohol on the Reds will be around 14.5%. Similar tannins to the V18 reds.