Tyler Redway
COONAWARRA’S wine industry has never looked better in its history following the release of the 2024 vintage season report.
The report, which was released earlier this month, detailed the process, challenges and highlights this year’s Coonawarra vintage experienced to become one of the most optimistic seasons in the last few decades.
Coonawarra Vignerons chief executive Hugh Koch said the quality of both red and white wines for the season had made the vintage “unlike any other in the modern era”.
“Not only was it the flavour but it was also the acid balance, the intense colour and the bold tannins,” Mr Koch said.
“These flavours were unlike anything we have seen consistently for a very long time.
“Right across Coonawarra, it is being said that there was not a tailing end which is usually pretty typical towards the end of the season.
“The benchmarks so far were certainly indicators that this could be vintage of the highest quality.”
Mr Koch said the beginning of the vintage season established itself with a warmer and drier winter due to the influence El Nino had on the climate at the time.
He said the following Spring and early Summer’s wetter conditions allowed for a better rate of shoot growth which also ensured canopies remained healthy.
“It’s funny how different seasons can have different outcomes and the growing season was most likely set up by the year’s El Nino influence,” he said.
“We did have some changing weather patterns in the back half of January, so warmer and drier conditions with cooler nights were optimal for the ripening phase, particularly for the whites and then the reds as well.
“We then experienced a lot of mild dry conditions through a lot of the middle and latter parts of summer, but it was punctuated by those bursts of heat which lead into harvest without any rain.”
He said although the 2024 season’s humidity caused a slight outbreak of disease in the vines, it was quickly managed by the region’s viticulturalists before it could cause serious damage.
“There was certainly some humid weather in late December to early January so there was a little bit of disease detected which was treated quickly,” Mr Koch said.
“It didn’t cause massive issues as there were only small spots of it but it was treated by the viticulturalists.
“There are always challenges with this sort of thing but you just have to keep an eye on it as you keep moving through the season.
Mr Koch said the lack of rain through most of the vintage season allowed the region’s viticulturalists to control the moisture in the soil easier, which allowed for greater quality in the end products for both red and white wines.
“The grapes were also able to pick up a greater intensity in flavour and I think the viticulturists were effectively able to control the moisture which really brought out the intense flavours,” he said.
“What that meant was that we had a slightly earlier vintage than average so the reds were picked through mid-to-late March and all the way through to Easter which is quite a short vintage in some instances.
“We have a little way to go, we’ll see how it has been made, how it is blended and how it appears in the bottle but those indicators are all pointing to vintage of the highest quality.”
Mr Koch said a large factor to the consistency of quality for Coonawarra’s vintage seasons was also the consistency of weather for the region.
He added although it was slightly inconvenient for people from the city to visit Coonawarra, the “magic dirt of Coonawarra” was a driver for the high quality wines each vintage season produced
“The conditions we have had in Coonawarra since 2018 have been very consistent where we have been able to produce excellent quality wine which is already starting ,”
“That consistency which the Coonawarra region brings is something we have over a lot of the other winemaking regions.
“It is a combination of climatic weather, where we sit the soil, the water, the skills of the viticulturalists and the winemakers which all comes into being and what makes a lot of our Coonawarra Wines so sought after.
“I think with where we sit geographically, that is the biggest component because people keep saying why would we position ourselves in a place where people can’t visit us easily from Adelaide or Melbourne, which all comes down to the magic dirt of Coonawarra.”
Mr Koch said he believed the 2024 vintage season had the potential to encourage people to pick up the global numbers of wine consumption, which had fallen off internationally in the past few years.
“I think a good vintage like this helps us to re-emerge and what I mean by that is we have had a strong product for many years but we have also seen a falloff of red wine consumption across the world, so vintage like this really helps to invigorate that industry once again,” he said.
