2023 VS&B Harvest Wrap-up

A very foggy day in May in our Thorley Vineyard, Stanley. The image was taken on the same day, only a few ours apart!

We remember telling anyone who asked about the 2021-2022 growing season, exactly what we thought: that it made us really work for it, but that what was in the cellar was delicious, so we’re at peace.

Part of what has been tricky about anticipating how climate change might impact us has been recognising… “OK, it’s not just all hotter and drier and earlier, it can be all over the place, and it can definitely be wetter and colder too.” … And that’s exactly how the 2022-2023 growing season played out.

Wine Australia is reporting the smallest crush since the year 2000, 23 years ago! There are a few influences playing into that of course, and an awful lot of grapes simply weren’t picked this vintage in the hot irrigated areas because the market has dried up internationally for cheap red wine. But it was a season marked by near-weekly heavy rainfalls across eastern Australia, and quite extreme disease pressure. For our part, 2022-2023 was cold, almost relentlessly wet, and very, very late ripening, if at all.

I (Tess) personally quite like the challenge of the differing seasons because I’m a viticulturist foremost. We have a host of little tricks up our sleeves for what to tweak as the vines grow, and it makes you feel great to get good results when what you try works well, and particularly when the tools are generally physical and/ or cultural. It’s not all machines and chemicals – especially for us, who are working (uncertified) organically. I thought we were selective in 2022, but in 2023 we needed to be neurotically selective, and it means we ended up with about a 40% reduced harvest. A few varieties like our Thorley Syrah didn’t get there in terms of ripeness (for dry table wine), and a couple of other vineyards that we buy fruit from simply could not supply grapes, due to disease losses. We do feel a deep sense of respect for nature and her patterns, there’s an anchoring safety in having something vastly bigger than us directing our efforts and calling the shots, even if it does make us work hard for the results.

What did we do? We adapted! We are, for the first time, making two sparkling wines. The 2023 Thorley Nebbiolo will be a crémant rosé style, and Lord it smells good out of barrel. The Brunnen Pinot and Chardonnay will make a traditional method sparkling wine, and we presume it will see two or three years on lees before disgorgement. So, the earliest drinkers will see that wine in the Spring of 2026.

The whites we have made like Thorley Chardonnay and Riesling and our popular Prêt-à-Blanc blend have romped through to harvest with little issue beyond picking around some botrytis, and the lighter reds we make from Pinot Noir are wonderfully fragrant and purply spicy. They’re all of course puppies in barrel and tank but all signs are encouraging, and as most reds were picked in May the tannins are so physiologically ripe, they should make quite harmoniously drinking wines in youth.

So, 2023’s wines will be marked simply by an adaptive approach. The first peek will be the 2023 Prêt-à-Blanc and Hollenspass, which will hit the website in November of 2023. We look forward to your feedback when that time comes.

It feels harder to learn new things as we get older and creakier but we have such a great peer group of brains and experience around us in Northeast Victoria, that the sparkling process in particular is proving to be quite energising – which is about as nice a silver-lining as it gets!

Here’s to the next 12-months…

Cheers, T&J xx