2008 Vintage Report The 2008 season began with early budburst and was followed by a wet yet warm spring.This favoured strong vegetative growth in the vines with fairly high vigor necessitating two or more shoot trims in most vineyards throughout the district.

Many vineyards had heavy shading caused by lateral growth and leaf cover in the fruit zone post trimming. Vineyards managing light exposure effectively in the fruit zone especially in reds will fair best this season.

As with 2007 this season was earlier than average the summer ripening period was mild with consistent good length of unrestricted sunshine during the day which resulted in good early flavour development in relation to sugar levels in most varieties but especially Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. As a result most parcels of white were harvested at lower sugar concentrations than during the previous season. Again along similar lines to 2007 the season stayed fine until late March allowing reds to fully ripen and hang on the vine to achieve optimum flavour and tannin ripeness. Rain events in early April had little impact on ripening, all reds were harvested by the 5th April reaching target Baumes.

On average yields were higher than expected with Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Shiraz exceeding pre-harvest estimates, Semillon, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot were in balance with estimates and only Riesling failed to reach yield estimates.

The highlights of this years vintage at this early stage are Shiraz and Merlot, however all varieties performed well. This will go down as one of the better vintages of the decade with the standard of fruit quality higher than average, we should see some stunning red wines with full rich palates and very concentrated fruit flavours to follow up the very good 2007 vintage. Many of the red fruit parcels showed great clarity of varietal fruit expression . Whites will be more balanced and restrained than 2007 with more complexity, texture and varietal character, less over ripe flavours and less forward ripe fruit flavours and without the up front punch and high alcohol power of 2007.

And finally as I write this report (21st April) the cane cut Riesling is being harvested today with recent Baume at 18. The fruit contains about 50-60 % raisons with incredible intense Riesling flavour, I anticipate another lovely luscious drop this year only there will be more of it.

Winemaker,
THE WINE & TRUFFLE CO