IT has been a difficult year for the region’s wine producing community, but despite the challenging start to 2020, Coonawarra vignerons are toasting the end of vintage with relief and success.
Hailed as a vintage to watch out for by the Coonawarra Vignerons, the 2020 season can be characterised by small quantities of high quality fruit.
The organisation’s 2020 vintage report outlines a strong start to the season with ideal soil moisture as a result of good rainfall between May and September.
Across the region, whites were picked in March, with the first of the reds coming off the vines between late March and the start of April.
While acknowledging a decrease of yields due to a cooler spring, the vigneron’s said the fruit comprised of small berries with a great fruit concentration and lovely tannis.
Balnaves of Coonawarra winemarker Peter Bissell said vintage had been slightly delayed due to frost issues, but were quickly back on track following drier weather later on in the season.
Mr Bissell said while a smaller amount of grapes had been harvested this year compared to other seasons, he assured wine lovers the quality was fantastic.
“With a bit of frost damage across the wider region it has reduced our stock, but it has been like that across South Australia,” he said.
“This will mainly have an impact on exporting rather than locally and could pose a financial impact.
“We were lucky because the fires at Nangwarry and Padthaway did not do any damage to our grapes and we were able to finish on time.”
Mr Bissell said the COVID-19 pandemic had not posed a significant impact on business as viticulture was classified as an essential industry under agriculture.
“COVID-19 did provide some problems with isolation taking place for vintage and we have tried to minimise our interactions with people who are not directly involved with vintage by having people only travelling to home and to work,” he said.
“Considering everything that has happened this year, it has been quite good and everything seemed to work through.”
Elders Naracoorte viticulturist Fil Farina said small yields characterised 2020 vintage across the entire Limestone Coast, attributing the decrease in numbers to a milder spring season.
“That was across the board with both reds and white wines,” he said.
“It was mainly due to some cooler weather in November which did not let the flowers bloom properly.
“There was good ripening across the board with mild weather in January and February and plenty of cool night which was great for the grapes.
“Those cooler nights allowed the grapes to ripen nicely with brilliant colour and flavour.”
