Polishing up the crystal ball for vintage 2012
Posted in Ruminations, Wine - Written by Nga Waka on March 14, 201214 March 2012
The land of the long, white cloud has truly lived up to its name this growing season. At the end of February, Growing Degree Days (GDD) had reached a paltry 756 heat units. Nearly half way through March we have accumulated a further 50 heat units to reach 806 heat units in total. Looking at past years’ records I think we will be doing well to reach 1,000 units for the whole season. In the past twenty years only the Mt. Pinatubo-affected vintages of 1992 and 1993 have accumulated fewer heat units at 873 and 877 respectively. 1994 was the next coolest vintage with 1095 heat units.
My best guess therefore, is that stylistically, vintage 2012 is going to fall somewhere between 1993 and 1994. Both those earlier vintages were low-yielding and late-ripening. Crops this year look similarly small and I expect we will start picking three to four weeks later than normal, towards the end of April and in to May. We were fortunate in 1993 and 1994 that disease pressure was minimal and we will be relying on similar fortune in 2012 so we can hang the grapes out long enough to get them ripe.
Reflecting back on the 1993 and 1994 wines might give an idea of how the 2012 wines could turn out. 1993 was challenging with generally low sugars, high acids and “greener” flavours. Significant intervention was required in the winery including deacidification and chaptalisation(sweetening) and the wines, while flavoursome, were certainly at the austere end of the spectrum. 1994 was the better year, not outstanding but a good solid year with well-balanced, generous wines and with much less winery intervention required.
Hopefully the next 4-6 weeks will see enough sunshine to push us more towards comparisons with the 1994 vintage, touch wood!
Roger Parkinson
Nga Waka
Martinborough
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Nga Waka, 41 New York Street West, Martinborough | PO Box 128, Kitchener Street, Martinborough.
Phone/Fax 0064 6 306 9832 | Email: ngawaka@ngawaka.co.nz |
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