The 2011 vintage in Central Otago could be a whopper, which it needs like a hole in the head.
Near perfect weather at flowering, and recent rains boosting the berry size has created a bumper crop with up to 10 tonnes/70hl of Pinot Noir per ha and 14-15 tonnes/ha of Pinot Gris in some areas, including Bannockburn and the Pisa ranges. If all this fruit stayed on the vine, it would lead to an unwanted ocean of Central Otago wine.
Graeme Crosbie, owner of Domain Road in Bannockburn says “We need to be careful not to overcrop. 2008 was the year where we learned we shouldn’t do that.”
Every producer I have spoken to in the region is now in the process of cutting bunches off the vines to cut their Pinot Noir yields by as much as half to attain four to six tonne per hectare.
But what if they don’t give a damn about the oversupply? Could they leave the fruit on the vine and make loads of wine? Unlikely.
If they leave all this fruit on it simply won’t ripen, particularly with the season looking pretty cool. But it is inevitable grape growers looking to sell their grapes on the spot market will eke as much as they can out of the vines to make any money they can.
While the vast majority of producers are furiously crop thinning, biodynamic grower Nick Mills of Rippon Estate hasn’t had so much work to do. Why? “We don’t irrigate so the vines were stressed in spring time and that affected flowering was very good. We will do some crop thinning but simply to create better air flow rather than cutting yield.”
Remember, there’s still another eight weeks to go until harvest and anything could happen between now and then….
