Harvest hopes for vintage crop

Last few weeks saw the start of the grape harvest, with the whites starting to come off the vines.

And by all accounts the season has been kind to growers, with no extreme weather events to contend with. 

Moppity Vineyards’ Jason Brown said he thinks this year could be among their best. 

“We started last week with the Chardonnay grapes and reds for the Rose... and we’re just getting ready to start out Shiraz,” he said.

“It’s shaping up to be a really good vintage.

“It hasn’t been too hot or too cold and intermittent rain just enough to keep the vines happy and healthy.”

Jason said the recent hot weather compressed the harvest, with some of the grapes ready a lot earlier than usual.  

Although that means they’re busy getting all the fruit off the vines, he said the quality looked top notch.

“This year’s been pretty kind to growers, it’s nice for mother nature to smile on us because every now and then she gives us a real beating,” Jason said.

“At this stage I’m pretty confident.”

He said he was most excited about the prospects for the vineyard’s Shiraz and new kid on the block, their Tempranillo - a Spanish Red variety.

“We’ve been grafting over a lot of our Chardonnay vines and we got our first crop from these vines last year,” Jason said.

“Normally we don’t expect much from our first pick but it was amazing and this year it’s even better.

“It’s also another feather in the cap for this region, we’ve become very closely associated with great Shiraz but it’s nice to show the marketplace we can do more than that.”

President of the Hilltops Vineyards Association Peter Creyke said growers in the region were so far mostly pleased with the season.

“It’s a bit early to tell because the reds haven’t really started but it’s been a favourable season so far for a change,” he said.

“Generally from the growers I’ve spoken to... people are optimistic.

“Summer was very typical with thunderstorms and quite a bit of rain... but hopefully most of us scraped through unscathed.

“There are still 30-40 days to go but fingers crossed, things look positive.”