The spring and early summer growing seasons were characterized by its coolness and dryness and was extremely windy. November and December temperatures were some of the coolest on record. The cool spring had the effect of delaying flowering by about a week later than normal. This phenomenon is particularly significant when the considerably earlier budburst is taken into account. Flowering was most erratic. Most varieties took over two weeks to complete flowering but the resultant fruit set was surprisingly good.

Mid to late summer weather conditions were also characterized by their coolness and dryness. Veraison was also variable, which necessitated doing a green thin on the less ripe red grapes
achieving an even ripeness across the vineyard reducing the possibility of producing wines that exhibit unripe fruit characters.

The ripening period was mild to warm and very dry. Bird activity early on was non-existent but this started to change as vintage progressed. Vintage commenced on 1 March with a small hand harvest of Chardonnay. The flavours on the whites developing very quickly at lower sugar levels than normally expected. Especially Semillon which we harvested at around 12 Baume producing some of the most outstanding fruit of the vintage.

By 18 March, we had finished harvesting the white grapes. Unlike the previous two vintages where everything ripened at once, we suddenly came to a standstill. We finally started harvesting reds in late March and continued until 21 April. Fortunately that was our last pick as the rains came tumbling down that evening. All up, it was timed to perfection. We were grateful that in such a cool late season we had crop thinned and green thinned contributing greatly to quality.

Across the board, the resultant wine quality appears excellent. Grapes fully ripened and displayed strong varietal definition and good tannin ripeness. Fruit was bright, clean and totally disease free.

Chardonnay (as expected) had the lowest yields we have seen, with many crops less than 2.5 tonne per hectare. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot were down by around 30% thanks to tiny bunches weighing about 100 grams average, and Sauvignon Blanc was down by 20%. Shiraz and Semillon crops were close to our target yields per hectare.

In summary, the 2001/2002 season was a reasonably difficult viticultural year due to the peculiar weather conditions experienced. Most notably the mild dry winter followed by a very cool spring and summer. It was certainly a year where a lot of work in the vineyard by the vine workers paid handsome dividends. Our thanks go out to them for their hard work