BRL Hard's take on vintage 2004

[Gavin Trott]

Hello

From a media release from BRL Hardy, with interesting views of the 2004 vintage across Australia, both in quantity and quality. - Gavin

Hardy Wine Company sets new Australian vintage

record with 28% higher 2004 grape crush

The Hardy Wine Company today announced a 2004 vintage of 329,350 tonnes – the largest annual grape crush in Australian history by any winery group.

The Hardy Wine Company crush represents about 19 per cent of the total Australian wine vintage, based on the most recent forecast by the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, of a 2004 industry crush of 1.755 million tonnes.

Group Chief Winemaker, Mr Peter Dawson, said the Hardy Wine Company's record 2004 vintage was up 28 per cent on the Company's 2003 vintage of 258,136 tonnes, five per cent higher than its previous record (313,530 tonnes in 2002) and seven per cent ahead of pre-vintage estimates.

"In a quality sense, 2004 will be the best vintage that we have seen for some time," Mr Dawson said.

"Unlike recent vintages, both warm and cool regions exceeded yield expectations," he said.

"After a succession of dry seasons, good winter and spring rainfalls, coupled with favourable conditions for fruit set, made a record 2004 vintage somewhat inevitable.

"Vines in cooler regions really bounced back after two low-cropping years.

"Most of our grape growing regions experienced a long, dry season, which was ideal for ripening. The effect of hot weather in February, whilst well publicised, impacted on only a few regions and did little to curtail the fruitful vintage generally.

"Chardonnay, which had been in short supply, came in 35 per cent higher than 2003, and 11 per cent higher that our estimates for this year. Shiraz was the other major variety exceeding expectations this year, up 27 per cent on 2003."

Mr Dawson said cool conditions in January benefited white varieties in the warmer regions with Chardonnay in particular showing great freshness, balance and fruit flavour.

"Red varieties in cooler regions generally required crop thinning to achieve optimal flavour development and ripeness, and where this occurred the results have been outstanding, especially Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra and Shiraz and Grenache from McLaren Vale," he said.

"Western Australia had an exceptional vintage across the board.

"An early break in the season in the Yarra Valley and Tasmania restricted table wine making opportunities, but the conditions were good in these regions for high quality sparkling wine.

"The favourable balance of grape varieties and a strong emphasis on grape quality have provided us with an excellent vintage and a solid platform for the year ahead."


Ed Carr, Group Sparkling Winemaker: "Outstanding quality and plenty of it"
"These cool years that have plenty of sunshine and stay dry are perfect, resulting in fine, elegant flavours in sparkling varieties," Mr Carr said of the 2004 vintage, which he rates as one of the best three of the past 10 years.

"In Tasmania, we had a strong performance in terms of quality fruit and plenty of it," he said.

"The region was very late because it was so much cooler than normal, although we were fortunate that most of the fruit for sparkling wines was picked before any rain. Chardonnays have fine, lemony, citrus mineral characters that will make wines with good persistence and ageing potential and Pinot Noir has fine, cherry and mineral characters."

Mr Carr said having a similar cool climate - and the highest altitude of Hardys' mainland vineyard resources - the Hoddles Creek vineyard in Victoria produced some outstanding fruit for sparkling wines.

Other areas with great results were Pemberton in Western Australia, which produced small parcels of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay that showed very strong regional characters; good Pinot Noir from Piccadilly (Adelaide Hills) and excellent quality fruit from Tumbarumba (south-eastern New South Wales).


Tom Newton, Group White Winemaker: "Flavoursome vintage for whites"
"Generally speaking, it's been quite an interesting vintage with unusual seasonal conditions producing white wines with great flavours, fullness and richness. If you've got flavour, you're a long way in front," Mr Newton said.

"It's a bit early to make more than general comments about the whites from cool areas. However, there are plenty of great wines made from earlier-picked grapes, especially in South Australia's Riverland, which excels in cool years. We have a shortage of whites and are releasing many a month early to keep up with demand. I'm really worried that people will see how good the 2004 wines are, and they will fly out the door even quicker."

Mr Newton said Chardonnay was "the pick of the vintage" for whites.

"Hoddles Creek, Tumbarumba and selected vineyards in Tasmania and the Adelaide Hills produced Chardonnays that are tight with long and intense sweet citrus lemon/ lime flavours," he said.

He said the best 2004 Sauvignon Blanc parcels from the Adelaide Hills have distinct grassy varietal characters; Riesling from Clare is very rich, full flavoured and limey; parcels of Pinot Gris from the Adelaide Hills and Tasmania look "pretty smart with lovely, intense flavours" and Viognier from Padthaway, the Adelaide Hills and Canberra is "quite aromatic with lots of apricot, honeysuckle and mandarin peel.


Paul Lapsley, Group Red Winemaker: "Cabernet Sauvignon leading the way"
"I'm really pleased with the vast majority of the reds. The grapes benefited from the warm Indian Summer, which brought on the extra flavour, richness and extract that we were looking for," Mr Lapsley said.

"Our initial impression would suggest that Cabernet is a stronger producer than Shiraz, having coped better with the mild conditions experienced in January. We haven't seen Cabernet this good for some time - the flavours, fruit sweetness, spice, elegance and finesse are really fabulous. The season did produce large crops but we identified this early and crop-thinned our vineyards as needed.

"Houghton in Western Australia had a near perfect vintage with some great reds produced. It was particularly strong for Cabernet, but there were also excellent parcels of Shiraz and Malbec.

"Margaret River Cabernet is as complex as I've seen - full bodied with lovely depth and great colour. Mt Barker and Frankland River Cabernet and Shiraz are wonderful. We had some terrific results with our Italian and Spanish varieties - they will be wines to watch out for in the future."

Mr Lapsley said than in South Australia, the Company had strong results from McLaren Vale, with excellent parcels of Shiraz and Cabernet; Coonawarra had heavy crops, but there were some outstanding parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Padthaway region produced Shiraz and Cabernet that was "solid". The vintage in Clare was slightly warmer than the other SA Central regions, and "very pleasing" Cabernet Sauvignon stood out ahead of Shiraz.

Good batches of Pinot Noir and Shiraz came out of the Yarra Valley before end-of-season rains, and likewise in Tasmania, where "reasonably good batches of Pinot Noir" were harvested. The Canberra district was very good for Shiraz, with the developing wines showing elegance, good depth of Rhone-like characters and lovely length, Mr Lapsley said.


Paul Kassebaum Group Winemaker and Regional Manager - Riverland and Sunraysia: "Smoothest in memory with Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon starring"
Combined, the Riverland and Sunraysia districts represent the Hardy Wine Company's largest source of fruit, which in 2004 achieved a record crush of 270,000-tonnes.

Mr Kassebaum said favourable weather conditions helped make vintage 2004 one of the smoothest in memory in terms of logistics and intake, as well as being very good for quality.

"The star performers this year were Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon," he said.

"Fruitfulness of the vines, which flourished over a very cool January, more than offset any losses that occurred as a result of hot weather in early February, which was about our only disappointment as far as ripening was concerned."

He described Chardonnay as showing excellent white peach and melon characters typical of Riverland Chardonnay, and good acid levels due to the coolest January in 12 years.

Cabernet Sauvignon crops were down in yield, mainly due to unfavourable climatic conditions that affected the fruit set for this variety. The harvested fruit showed very good, atypical Riverland dark red fruit berry flavours and a lot more density and structure than previous years.

Shiraz, while very good and solid, lacks the great highlights of previous cooler years, while early-ripening aromatics like Frontignac and Traminer benefited from January's unusually cool weather.

[Guest]

Call me a cynic, but there is not one word of caution in the whole "press release."

Looks like they are trying to talk up 2004. The bloody 2002 have hardly hit the footpaths yet!

For once, just for once, I would like to see a little balance in the "spin" the majors put out, but thats like wishing for honesty from the tooth fairy.

[Wizz]

I tihnk the word of caution is indeed there but it is veiled: where is all the talk of bumper shiraz? Everything is about Chardonnay and Cabernet.

cheers

Andrew