Hunter Valley Harvest
The growing season for the 2025 vintage started with budburst back way back in August last year so it’s a long haul for vineyard managers to get the vineyards to the point where they are ready to harvest. There are certainly no long summer holidays for them (or short ones) and with a hot spell over the Christmas/New Year period, many growers were constantly working to keep the water up to the vines. With some cooler temperatures and a bit of mid-January rain the vines were looking stress free and ready to do the last push of ripening. Then the Hunter does what it loves to do ... it rained. This stalled most vineyards for a week or so but the clouds parted and it was game on for the white varieties.
A key feature of this season was some cooler overnight temperatures early in the season which is ideal for acid retention and slightly extends the growing season which is perfect for flavour development. Crops were also well up on previous years, especially Semillon. Reds are now all harvested with the lower yielding vineyards coming in at some pretty impressive ripeness levels. All up it was a vintage with a bit of everything thrown in – hot, cold, wet, dry - you name it. Keep an eye out for some sensational 2025 whites and seek out the reds from old-vine vineyards.
Mar 10, 2025 at 11:35 AM
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