One of New Zealand’s most respected viticulturists, Dr David Jordan, believes he is some of the way towards explaining the abnormally low sauviginon blanc crop from his country’s best and most significant sauvignon blanc, region, Marlborough. Although much of the blame for the low crop can be levelled at the cloudy, overcast springtime conditions around flowering and the poor fruit set which occurred as a result, Jordan lays much of the blame on early bunch stem necrosis (ESBN). ESBN is not widely recognised around the NZ industry, primarily because Jordan believes that many of the growers haven’t paid the close attention to bunch numbers in their vineyards that he has. Furthermore Jordan, who earned his PhD on the subject, is suddenly one of the most sought-after sources of opinion on the alarmingly low 2000 crop, which averages around 40% below expectations. Some of the worst hit vineyards, most of which were older plantings, were even reduced by 60% in yield. Jordan believes that older plantings are most sensitive to the problem. ‘ESBN hits by lowering bunch numbers. You can get healthy counts early on, but then find that half the bunches have disappeared later in the season. It also reduces the number of berries on each bunch’, he explains. The only upside to the problem, which has many public companies running around looking for more material, is that quality is exceptionally high and flavours overall are ‘incredibly intense’.
