Description
Vintage Conditions
The tale of the 2017/18 growing season is delightfully simple. Essentially, benign conditions prevailed nearly all the way such that even Hanrahan wouldn’t have complained!
Rainfall during calendar year 2017 was above average with 1117mm, so there was plenty of moisture in the soil but with a solid 267mm falling during the growing season, the vines were never in danger of being stressed.
During the flowering period for the Cabernet varieties at Ribbon Vale, from 7th November to 12th December, there were only 3 days when the temperature dropped below 8°C, so the only interruptions were caused by rain. Hanrahan might have grumbled with his mates in the congregation when we had showers or drizzle on 14 days and received a total of 50mm of rain, which gave us lighter bunches and commensurately lower yields, the only serious disappointment of the vintage. Cabernet Franc cropped at 6.55 tonnes per hectare, down 17% and Merlot, doing its best to save the team, cropped at 7.38 tonnes per hectare, down only 5%.
At this point, however, even he would stop complaining.
Temperatures during summer and autumn were very enjoyable for those of us working in the vineyard. An absence of sustained hot weather made outdoor activities easy, although the nights were fresh and didn’t provide too many balmy evenings for holiday makers. Apart from one hot day on 14th January when the mercury topped out at 39.1°C, there were very few days when the temperature exceeded 33°C, so the vines were very comfortable indeed.
Given these mild conditions, it’s no surprise the rate of ripening was a bit leisurely. It’s almost as if the vines knew they had plenty of time to enjoy good conditions and were determined to do so. Cabernet Franc used its average 119 days to proceed from flowering to ripeness but Merlot was more casual, taking 3 more days than usual at 122.
This last point is interesting and in all but the warmest years can certainly challenge us. As we proceed into autumn and the average temperature drops accordingly, we often find Ribbon Vale ripening noticeably slower than Moss Wood, a product of its elevated, south-facing location. It gets quite chilly out there, especially overnight, and the vines take longer to warm up and get moving in the morning. We have to be patient and keep an eye on the weather and are happy to leave the fruit out as long as we can, but we always get a bit touchy if rain is looming. We need to be ready to jump in at late notice and this is how it was in 2018. The last pick was on 9th April and over the next 2 weeks, 50mm of rain fell. We couldn’t have left things any longer but the quality was worth the wait.
We were successful in deterring the birds and our fungicide program ensured we had no disease, so each variety produced grapes in excellent condition and which also means the pressure goes on in the winery because we don’t want to spoil all that good work.
