Charlotte Varcoe
MILD weather has developed what some in the wine industry are describing as the best vintage in two decades across the Limestone Coast.
Likened to the vintage of 2004 and 1990, this year’s vintage is expected to bring quality drops to both domestic and international wine enthusiasts.
Viticulturist Fil Farina said South Australian vineyards, especially those in Limestone Coast, undertook vintage earlier this year due to a constant cool summer period from November until earlier this year.
He said the lack of disease pressure gave the vines plenty of time to ripen and create the flavours Limestone Coast wineries are famous for.
“The weather over Christmas really kicked it off because it was a lot cooler than previous years and then the January until March cool weather stopped vines from becoming stressed and allowed them to do what they needed to do,” Mr Farina said.
“This has given vineyards high quality bunches of grapes which will now be turned into wine and it is safe to say a lot of winemakers are very happy.”
He said a high portion of Limestone Coast wines continue to be consumed domestically throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“People are more than happy to support local and once the 2021 vintage wines drop we will see a lot of quality wines with the right characteristics all the way from cabernet to riesling,” Mr Farina said.
Balnaves of Coonawarra viticulturist Peter Balnaves said the positive vintage was fantastic to see due to the wine industry being in a difficult position in the international market.
“The Chinese market is reducing in size and it remains important that the industry has good quality wines in the tanks,” Mr Balnaves said.
“The supply is heading in the right direction and although vintage continued quite late this year the mild and even season really pushed the quality up a lot.”
He said wineries were continuing successfully with the pruning season despite the slight interruption with the ongoing pandemic.
“We have also experienced a positive amount of rain throughout the region which really furthers vineyards across the Coonawarra region,” he said.
