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After a quick succession of non-damaging frosts, spring 2009 promised to lead into a lovely long summer bringing beautiful clear days. However, at the start of October, a windy and extremely cold weather pattern arrived and maintained its status through to the end of December. In conjunction with the colder than normal winter, the soil temperatures remained cool and this in turn slowed the growth of the vines and delayed flowering by two weeks. This was a blessing as a short but settled period of warmer weather occurred right at the critical time of flowering. As a result, our early January estimates show that all varieties including ‘fickle’ Gewurztraminer have what appears to be a moderate sized crop – with the long bunches and small berries which might be expected to promote concentrated flavours in the final wines.
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