Without going into a lot of detail, the Pinot Noir never really recovered from the 'battering' it took during the number of extreme high temperature/strong wind days we had during summer.
The resultant raisining of the fruit made it not worthwhile picking.
Despite continuous spraying against botrytis during the entire season, not just at the recommended growth stages, the Semillon succumbed to this fungal disease very quickly after a week of rain just before the potential harvest date.
We decided against picking and sorting through the limited remaining crop.
Makes you wonder what you have to do to keep botrytis out of this variety in this climate.
The Tempranillo was light on crop from the start and despite the good quality of fruit on the vines there simply was not enough to make it worth while picking and it had ripened too early to include it into the Cabernet Sauvignon harvest.
The Cabernet Sauvignon was also a little light on crop but of excellent quality.
Surprisingly we had a bush rat 'attack' towards the end of the season which reduced the crop even further but we managed to bait them quickly enough to prevent any major damage.
This is a first for us but other local vineyards have reported similar incidents over the years.
So the Cabernet has been picked and fermented.
Baume was 12.5 deg and pH 3.8.
We are letting it macerate on the skins for a week or so before pressing to extract as much colour and tannins as possible.
Acid adjustment (to pH 3.6), malolactic fermentation, settling, racking, fining and maturation will follow.
It will be a lighter style with just a hint of French oak.
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