PREDICTABLY PRECARIOUS VINTAGE

VINTAGE 2009 in Victoria ended pretty much the way it started - anxiously. "It will go down as the vintage of the century," declared a deadpan Rob Dolan of Sticks Winery in the Yarra Valley, "for all the wrong reasons."

Drought and heat stress early in the vintage contributed to a smaller state harvest, with producers seeing bunches of fruit lighter in weight (due to a lack of water) and then, as days of 40 degree-plus weather bore down, leaves shrivelled and dropped. Fresh, plump berries turned into dried sultanas within hours. "Actually," suggested Kirsten Hardiker at Cannibal Creek Vineyard at Tynong North, Gippsland, "it was worse than sultanas. The fruit was as hard as wood." Needless to add, shrivelled fruit did not get to the winery doors.

The Victorian Wine Industry Association (VWIA) expects the state's tonnages to be down around 15 to 20 per cent on last year's total of 81,950 tonnes. President Chris Pfeiffer said wine production in the western part of the state had been badly affected by the water shortage. The national vintage is also expected to be down 22 per cent to around 1.4 million tonnes.

But, and there is always a ‘but' when talking about vintage, there are quite a few optimistic winemakers out there who believe they will produce excellent wines. "The quality of the wine coming through is better than we were expecting," said winemaker Nina Viergutz at Andrew Peace Wines in the Murray Valley, where growers have had to contend with record low water allocations.