Agriculture
21 April, 2023
Grape harvest quality good
YIELD is down but quality up for Loddon vineyards as the 2023 vintage wraps up. Newbridge Wines’ Andrew Simpson said growing conditions had been difficult with the wet spring but said picking had proven one of the easiest seasons. “The yield was...
YIELD is down but quality up for Loddon vineyards as the 2023 vintage wraps up.
Newbridge Wines’ Andrew Simpson said growing conditions had been difficult with the wet spring but said picking had proven one of the easiest seasons.
“The yield was certainly much lower than normal but quality is still high,” he said.
Newbridge Wines picked grapes earlier this season as it prepares to bottle its first rose variety.
“The earlier picking reduces tannin from pips and skins and we will prepare the base in the traditional French method,” he said. “It will be 12 to 24 months before we do the first bottling of our rose.”
Mr Simpson said: “There was little rain in the later part of the season and this made it ideal for picking.”
Newbridge Wines also picked from its fiano variety vines that were planted in 2018.
The southern Italian white variety was chosen by Mr Simpson to expand his range.
“We are only the second vineyard in the Bendigo region to plant fiano,” he said.
“I thought fiano is well suited to our climatic conditions. It’s a very upright but low yielding variety.”
He said there had been a 30 per drop in yield, a decline also experienced by Peter Cummins, of Bridgewater’s Water Wheel
He is in the final stages of harvesting and said this season’s picking was among the latest in three decades.
“But the quality of the yield is showing potential to make great wines,” Mr Cummins said.
“We’re probbaly down about half the normal yield but we’re happy with what’s coming off the vines.
“The grapes have great colour and are ripening with the weather. The colour we are seeing has the potential for it to be a great year.”
Mr Cummins said losses had been minimal early in the season despite a wet September and October.
Black Wallaby’s Dave Lawson said yield at his Bridgewater North vineyard was down about 15 per cent.
“Everyone we supply grapes to have been happy with the quality,” he said.
“The dry summer helped us overcome the beginning phase of the season.
“We were able to pretty much stay on top of downy mildrew that was a challenge during the wet start to spring.”
Black Wallaby and other local wineries will be part of an end-of-vintage festival for Bendigo wine region growers in Bendigo this weekend.