On a quiet news day in Australian wine, I thought I’d call one of the most honest respondents this country possesses with respect to an early vintage assessment. Gary Farr, the winemaker at Bannockburn (Geelong region, Victoria) since the late 1970s, reckons it’s too early to call whether or not the 2004 season has produced anything truly remarkable. ‘Ask me in about three months time’ he says, although his concise overall assessment of ‘pretty good’ is both enthusiastic and even verbose by Farr’s historic standards. Having endured several seasons of drought-affected yields well below average, 2004 has finally given Bannockburn a decent crop. Even though a short spell of poor weather at flowering knocked down chardonnay yields, Farr reckons he might even have too many grapes. ‘At least not with chardonnay’, he comments. ‘Darned hard to sell expensive chardonnay these days.’ His shouldn’t be that hard to sell. Furthermore, given my opinion of Bannockburn’s wine, I’m not sure that it’s possible for it to grow too many grapes, unless of course the vineyard has over-produced. That it apparently hasn’t. Instead, without having been left any more buds than usual at pruning, the vineyard has produced nearly a full complement of fruitful bunches. The extended Indian summer experienced by southern Victoria should ensure despite some recent rainfall and a harvest two weeks later than recent years, that the fruit is harvested with good ripeness and composition. Some shiraz and cabernet sauvignon still remain on the vine, but their sugar levels presently correspond to around 13.5% alcohol by volume, which is more than plenty for this region. As for flavour, Farr reckons ‘they’re all there’, and even concedes that given its relatively low yield, that the chardonnay might make quite an intense and concentrated wine, ‘a little like the 2002’. Time will of course provide the only meaningful answers, but I’d still suggest that 2004 could be a stellar vintage for the better-managed vineyards of cool-climate Victoria. So keep out an eye for those Bannockburns!
