Winter ’06 was very wet and miserable if you happened to be out pruning, and the water table which rose through our deep gravels to within 2 meters of the surface, only abated in time for spring. Budburst was an unexpected two weeks early but the two frosts at this
time were what we have now come to expect and prepare for. The possibility of an early harvest was reversed by continuing cool, wet weather leading up to summer and we now think harvest could be around a week later than ‘average’. Our miserable weather culminated in the coldest December on record which had its inevitable effect on flowering and consequentially small crops through the district, but it was an extraordinarily late frost on January 4th which was the last nail in the coffin for some vineyard blocks around
town. However I am relieved to report that Dry River fared relatively well overall and while our crop levels are down they are not as catastrophically low as they were in ’03 and ’05: that is with the exception of Gewurztraminer which may not be sufficient to harvest. |
