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1998 vintage report for Hunter Valley (New South Wales)

Mount Pleasant Estate manager/winemaker Phillip Ryan believes the 1998 vintage in the Hunter Valley will shape into a vintage long remembered for the quality of wines produced. ‘1998 reds are outstanding,’ he said. ‘The warm dry conditions have led to high sugar levels and anthocyanin concentration in the grapes. The wines are deep in colour and rich in varietal flavour.’ He said the whites were also generally of an extremely high quality – fruit-driven wines showing intense varietal flavour. The Hunter Valley harvest for the 1998 vintage started on 27 January with the picking of white grape varieties such as Chardonnay and Verdelho. Excessive heat during November, December and January, with below average rainfall brought about by the El Nino effect, led to a 15% decrease in yield compared with last year. Phillip Ryan said the dry and hot conditions greatly reduced any threat of fungal infection, with virtually no threat from downy mildew or bunch rot. The reduction in berry size and hence crop weight led to a concentration of wine flavours. ‘In operational terms there was no pressure on the early part of vintage due to weather conditions being so dry. This allowed for a controlled intake of varieties such as Semillon and Chardonnay. These weather conditions continued during the harvest, resulting in accelerated ripening of the red varieties which did cause some bottlenecks in fermentation capacity of most wineries. The result was that much of the later picked reds were quite high in sugar levels and suffered from weight loss, but resulted in wines rich in flavour,’ he said. Mark Davidson, chief winemaker and managing director of Tamburlaine in the Hunter Valley, says that despite the heat, 1998 has been a particularly memorable season for his winery. ‘Overall it is the best fruit quality we have processed since our first vintage in 1986,’ he said. The Verdelho was the first off, early in February, at ‘perfect sugar to flavour.’ Mark said the Semillon was picked next, absolutely clean and ideally suited to skin-contacting for extra flavour. ‘The Chardonnay too is a winner, over 12.5 °Baume sugar concentration, reminiscent of our excellent 1991. Good hot and dry weather continued to the last week of February and the Shiraz is sensational.’ Mark said it was by far the ripest red fruit he had ever taken from the Hunter vineyards. ‘This is great news for red wine lovers — rich and ripe with final alcohol reaching 14%.’ The 1998 vintage wines will be released in July.