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Late harvest full of cheer
BY ABBY WALTER
Wimmera and Grampians
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vineyard owners are impressed with this season’s yield and quality, despite a late harvest.
Norton Estate owners Chris and Sam Spence said this year’s harvest was later than it had ever been before.
“We had an incredibly wet winter and spring and it didn’t stop raining until mid-December, so we didn’t have the traditional Wimmera spring and summer which gets warm and dry – it took a long time for the fruit to ripen,” Mr Spence said.
“Normally we would be finished about Labour Day weekend in March, but this year we didn’t start our fruit pick until the weekend after that, which is some four to five weeks later than normal.”
Mrs Spence said there were some silver linings to the late season.
“We are one of the luckier ones. Other vineyards, the poor things, are still picking and still waiting for fruit to ripen,” she said.
“For a frustrating wait – it seems to take forever when you’re getting into April and still waiting for the grapes to ripen – it turned out pretty well for us. Plus, we have been able to start a new label, a rosé, which I have been wanting to do for a while.”
Mr Spence said he had never been ‘fully onboard’ with the idea of rosé, but the season had lent itself to trying it.
“We had a huge amount of shiraz hanging on the vines and I said to Sam, ‘you know that rosé you love to drink – this might be the right year to start this label’,” he said.
“It is made from the same grapes as our Rockface shiraz and the winemakers have said it’s some of the best rosé fruit they have seen in years, so at this stage, it’s pretty spectacular, but it’s not over until it’s in the bottle.”
Grampians Estate owner Tom Guthrie said he was very happy that his 15 pickers were taking off a reasonable crop this year, as the harvest season slowly neared its end.
“Around the region, the wet spring has meant some yields are down while others are doing okay,” he said.
“Harvest is extremely late and we’re running out of sun to fully ripen the grapes – it was a combination of a
