Vintage 2014 Reports

2014 Vineyard Vintage Report

Colin Ross, Viticulturist and Farmer

Weather

Minimal frost in Spring 2013. Excellent early season canopy growth with minimal inputs required. Perfect flowering conditions in 2013 and 2014, resulting in good bunch numbers and berry set. The season by the summer solstice was 7-10 days ahead of average.  Cool conditions post berry set and up to veraison. Dry and warm ripening with rapid veraison.  Welcome sunshine with mild and stable ripening conditions until the end of the first week in April. Heavy rain mid April.

Growing

Observant and considered viticulture practices have delivered fruit suitable for all our wine-making and market requirements. Considerable attention was paid to cropping levels from all blocks. Fruit was disease free plus very close to planned and forecast yields. 2014 has been a great testimony to quality biodynamic agriculture. Thick skins on berries, well -spaced and open bunches, moderate open canopies, under-vine cover-crops, low bird pressure all had a part to play in delivering some tasty fruit in 2014.

Harvest

Harvest began with a small pick for sparkling base from the Leopold block at Raupo on the 18^th of March. Vintage began in earnest from the 25^th of March with Pinots from Osip. Balanced, ripe fruit at lower brix has been our goal for many years and is gradually becoming the norm.  Challenging conditions from the 8^th of April with persistent rainfall.  The majority of fruit had been harvested by this time. Taking advantage of clear weather windows we were able to have all of our fruit harvested by the 15^th of April. Due to frenetic activity in the region towards the end of harvest we opted to handpick a portion of the MOMO Sauvignon Blanc this year. The region was hit by a deluge of 50mm+ beginning on the 16^th. Around  150mm of rain falling regionally in April, against a long term average of 47mm. , with 129mm at Raupo and 187mm at Home. With the majority of fruit coming from Raupo, this was a real blessing.

Highlights

All in all, a year where we have had a very pleasing result at Seresin. After five years of training and experimentation using working horses for applying compost teas and biodynamic preparations via our custom-made ground drive spray-unit we are now covering the entire Home vineyard and olive groves with horse-drawn applications. This is an area in excess of 50 hectares.  In 2014, we also brought our hand-harvested fruit to the winery with a special horse drawn trailer.

650 tonnes of very high quality fruit picked by hand.