I didn’t know this sort of vintage existed anywhere in the world’, enthuses Mount Pleasant’s winemaker Phil Ryan. ‘I thought 1998 was the best we’d see in a lifetime, but this looks even better.’ More Hunter hype? Apparently not. After a cold dry spell through Christmas to mid January the Lower Hunter experienced fine sunny weather up to and throughout harvest, making ‘cool climate’ wines with ‘fantastic’ juice composition with high sugars, high acids and low pH, the likes of which Ryan has never seen before. ‘We’ll keep the tartaric for another day, and everyone else found the same.’ While the vintage was close to perfect, producing fully ripened chardonnay and shiraz as ‘black as hell’, the semillons are likely to be riper and earlier to mature than usual. According to Rosemount’s Phillip Shaw the Upper Hunter’s vintage is much the same. ‘It’s the best I’ve ever had here, easily. A blueprint of what a vintage should be.’ Early rain in Mudgee’s season has cleared up and conditions are very good, while Orange is experiencing a very cool, fine, but extremely late season. McWilliams’ Jim Brayne is excited over the potential of his Barwang harvest from the Hilltops region. Crop levels are low, but there has been no heat or drought stress in the fruit. At time of printing in early March, Griffith’s vintage might be threatened by some dampish overcast weather after a cool summer. Crop levels are 10-15% below estimates and at present the flavours in whites are very good, reds outstanding.
